Evolution of the far northern barrier reefs

Abstract

The basement and much of the volume of the northern barrier reefs are Miocene in age. Formation of the ancestral northern barrier reefs was greatly affected by late Miocene crustal instability associated with formation of the Papuan Basin. Present physiographic features are primarily the product of Quaternary eustatic changes. Present morphologies of the deltaic and far northern dissected reefs are discussed in relation to what is known of the geological history of the area.