The little explored Cambodian and Vietnamese Phuquoc–Kampot Som Basin is a Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous foreland basin developed in response to the build-up of a palaeo-Pacific magmatic arc. A combination of seismic data, well data and outcrop geology complemented by fission track and U/Pb analysis is used to unravel the basin history. This reveals a hitherto unknown earliest Palaeogene basin inversion associated with the Luconian suturing to SE Asia and the shutdown of palaeo-Pacific subduction underneath SE Asia. The Phuquoc–Kampot Som Basin and the Khorat Basin in Thailand constitute the erosional remnants of a larger basin that covered large parts of SE Asia in Late Mesozoic time, and subsequently became segregated during earliest Palaeogene inversion and erosion. Inversion was focused along the several hundred kilometres long Kampot and Khmer–Chanthaburi fold belts that confine the Phuquoc–Kampot Som Basin and merge with the Mae Ping and the Three Pagodas fault zones. These connections, together with local NW–SE-trending sinistral transpressional faults offshore, indicate a link between initial SE Asian left-lateral strike-slip faulting and the Luconian suturing. The separation between the once unbroken Khmer–Chanthaburi Fold Belt and the Phetchabun Fold Belt in Thailand suggests a 50–100 km Cenozoic left-lateral offset across the Mae Ping Fault Zone.

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The Early Eocene Fur Formation is a clayey diatomite interbedded with layers of volcanic ash. The diatomite is non-calcareous, laminated or structureless, and thin sections show that the proportion of clay-sized particles to diatom frustules varies between laminae. The clay mineral phase has been isolated and its chemical composition has been determined by X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Clay mineralogical analyses based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) show that the dominant phase is smectite. A general formula for the clay mineral phase is: X0.1K0.2(Mg0.3Fe(III)0.3–0.7Al1.1–1.4)Si4O10(OH)2.The investigation indicates that the clayey diatomite of the Fur Formation comprises three components: diatom frustules, clay minerals and volcanic dust. The chemical compositions of bulk samples have been determined. The clay mineral content is calculated to be 30–45% (by weight). Volcanic dust constitutes c. 10% of the diatomite, and the rest is diatoms (opal-A). The diatom frustules contain some Al2O3 that is either of primary or diagenetic origin.