Depositional history of the Sulu Sea from ODP Sites 768, 769 AND 771

Abstract

Holes were drilled at three Sites in the Sulu Sea on Ocean Drilling Program Leg 124. Site 768 lies in the deeper part of the SE sub‐basin and Sites 769 and 771 lie on the flanks of the Cagayan ridge. The results indicate that the Sulu Basin originated in the late early Miocene (c.18.8 Ma) in a backarc setting. The Cagayan Ridge was a site of early to early middle Miocene arc volcanism with the deposition of a thick sequence of andesitic to basaltic volcaniclastic deposits. In the basin center an early Miocene pelagic sequence is interrupted by a thick unit of rhyolitic to dacitic pyroclastic flows. Middle to late Miocene sedimentation is more continental in character with thick quartz‐rich turbidites in the basin center. Only the hemipelagic claystone related to these terrigenous turbidites were deposited on the Cagayan Ridge. A decrease in the supply of clastic detritus from arc and continental sources and a change in the level of the carbonate compensation depth in the upper Pliocene resulted in pelagic carbonate deposition throughout the late Pliocene and Pleistocene.

Neogene rock uplift and erosion in northern Borneo: evidence from the Kinabalu granite, Mount Kinabalu

“…This is plausibly related to extension in the nearby Sulu Sea marginal basin (Fig. 1), which began in the late Early Miocene (Nichols et al 1990;Rangin & Silver 1990;Fig. 8) in response to subduction of the Celebes Sea beneath the Sulu Arc (e.g.…”

“…Hutchison et al, 2000) Spreading in the Sulu Sea (e.g. Nichols et al, 1990;Rangin & Silver, 1990) Change in volcanic compositions in NE Borneo (Chiang, 2002) * Oldest dated crust in the Sulu Sea (e.g. Nichols et al, 1990) Sabah Orogeny (e.g.…”

“…Nichols et al, 1990;Rangin & Silver, 1990) Change in volcanic compositions in NE Borneo (Chiang, 2002) * Oldest dated crust in the Sulu Sea (e.g. Nichols et al, 1990) Sabah Orogeny (e.g. Hutchison, 1996;Balaguru et al, 2003;Hall et al, 2008) rapid uplift could have been initiated by break-off of a subducted slab (e.g.…”

Structural geology of the Neogene Maliau Basin, Sabah

“…Based on the regional and local structures the Maliau Basin appears to have developed initially in an extensional regime, whereby an enormous amount of sediments were deposited in a subsiding basin which was later subjected to compression (inversion). The subsiding basin was probably part of a much larger basin in East Sabah, which started to develop during the early Miocene as a result of NW -SE extension, related to the opening of the Sulu Sea Basin (Rangin, 1989;Nichols et al, 1990). A major NW-SE strike-slip fault south of Sabah possibly formed the southern boundary of the extension.…”

Tertiary stratigraphy and basin evolution of southern Sabah: implications for the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of Sabah, Malaysia

“…The absence of widespread syn-sedimentary Decem6er 2005 deformation in the Tanjong Formation suggests that it was deposited during a period of relative tectonic quiescence which lasted through the deposition of the Kapilit Formation which includes strata which are late Middle Miocene (approximately 12-10 Ma) or younger. There must have been continued subsidence, however, because the Serudong Group sediments were all deposited in coastal to shelf environments but have a cumulative thickness of at least 6,000 m. The Middle Miocene subsidence in the Central Sabah Basin is possibly related to coeval development of the Sulu Sea Basin in a back-arc setting (Nichols et al, 1990) or regional thermal subsidence (Ismail et al, 1995).…”