Nature and demise of the Proto-South China Sea

Hall, Robert; Breitfeld, H. Tim

doi:10.7186/bgsm63201703

Cited by 110 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 96 publications

(175 reference statements)

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“…The minor, ~10° CCW rotation since the Early Miocene constrained in the APWP of Borneo (Figure ) may indeed have been driven by this collision. Our new constraints showing a Late Eocene rotation coincide with two regional phenomena: (1) the onset of rapid northward motion of Australia relative to Eurasia around 45–40 Ma (Whittaker et al, ) and (2) the Sarawak Orogeny (Hutchison, ) or Rajang unconformity (Hall & Breitfeld, ) on NW Borneo, which involved folding and thrusting of the Upper Cretaceous‐Upper Eocene turbidites of the Rajang Group (Figure ) on NW Borneo. The deformed Rajang Group is separated by a regional unconformity of around 40–37 Ma (see discussion in Hall, ) from the overlying Upper Eocene‐lowest Miocene Crocker Group showing timing of deformation (Van Hattum et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Cenozoic Rotation History of Borneo and Sundaland, SE Asia Revealed by Paleomagnetism, Seismic Tomography, and Kinematic Reconstruction

Advokaat

Marshall

et al. 2018

Tectonics

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SE Asia comprises a heterogeneous assemblage of fragments derived from Cathaysia (Eurasia) in the north and Gondwana in the south, separated by suture zones representing closed former ocean basins. The western part of the region comprises Sundaland, which was formed by Late Permian‐Triassic amalgamation of continental and arc fragments now found in Indochina, the Thai Penisula, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra. On Borneo, the Kuching Zone formed the eastern margin of Sundaland since the Triassic. To the SE of the Kuching Zone, the Gondwana‐derived continental fragments of SW Borneo and East Kalimantan accreted in the Cretaceous. South China‐derived fragments accreted to north of the Kuching Zone in the Miocene. Deciphering this complex geodynamic history of SE Asia requires restoration of its deformation history, but quantitative constraints are often sparse. Paleomagnetism may provide such constraints. Previous paleomagnetic studies demonstrated that Sundaland and fragments in Borneo underwent vertical axis rotations since the Cretaceous. We provide new paleomagnetic data from Eocene‐Miocene sedimentary rocks in the Kutai Basin, east Borneo, and critically reevaluate the published database, omitting sites that do not pass widely used, up‐to‐date reliability criteria. We use the resulting database to develop an updated kinematic restoration. We test the regional or local nature of paleomagnetic rotations against fits between the restored orientation of the Sunda Trench and seismic tomography images of the associated slabs. Paleomagnetic data and mantle tomography of the Sunda slab indicate that Sundaland did not experience significant vertical axis rotations since the Late Jurassic. Paleomagnetic data show that Borneo underwent a ~35° counterclockwise rotation constrained to the Late Eocene and an additional ~10° counterclockwise rotation since the Early Miocene. How this rotation was accommodated relative to Sundaland is enigmatic but likely involved distributed extension in the West Java Sea between Borneo and Sumatra. This Late Eocene‐Early Oligocene rotation is contemporaneous with and may have been driven by a marked change in motion of Australia relative to Eurasia, from eastward to northward, which also has led to the initiation of subduction along the eastern Sunda trench and the proto‐South China Sea to the south and north of Borneo, respectively.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Cenozoic Rotation History of Borneo and Sundaland, SE Asia Revealed by Paleomagnetism, Seismic Tomography, and Kinematic Reconstruction

Advokaat

Marshall

et al. 2018

Tectonics

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“…Later uplift of the Rajang Group sediments is explained by a plate reconfiguration around 45 Ma and re-initiation of subduction around SE Asia. The onset of subduction of the proto-South China Sea beneath NW Borneo at the Sabah-Cagayan Arc (Hall, 2013a;Hall and Breitfeld, 2017) might have been the major contributing factor to the uplift in Borneo.…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new upper Paleogene to Neogene stratigraphy for Sarawak and Labuan in northwestern Borneo: Paleogeography of the eastern Sundaland margin

Hennig-Breitfeld

Breitfeld

Hall

et al. 2019

Earth-Science Reviews

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The Miri Zone in Sarawak contains thick Paleogene to Neogene sedimentary successions that extend offshore into the Sarawak Basin (Balingian and Central Luconia Provinces) and Sabah Basin. Exploration offshore has shown the Sarawak Basin in the South China Sea contains major hydrocarbon reservoirs. The sediments on land are age equivalents of the offshore successions and can be used to provide insights into their sedimentological and stratigraphic relations. However, because the rocks are found in mountainous regions covered by dense rainforest much of the stratigraphy in the Miri Zone is poorly known, as are timings and causes of major unconformities in the region that are essential for understanding the tectonic history, basin development, and sedimentary pathways. In this study we integrate fieldwork, U-Pb zircon dating, biostratigraphy, and light and heavy mineral analyses to present a revised stratigraphy for the region as well as paleogeographic maps, including major paleo-river systems for the main sedimentary basins. Rocks studied include parts of the Cretaceous to Eocene deep marine Rajang Group, fluvial to marginal marine sediments of the Oligocene to Early Miocene Tatau, Buan, Nyalau and Setap Shale Formations, and the Miocene sediments which are assigned to the Balingian, Begrih and Liang Formations in the Mukah-Balingian province, and the Belait Formation on Labuan. There is still much debate about the timings or even existence of some important unconformities offshore, such as the Middle Miocene Unconformity (MMU) and Deep Regional Unconformity (DRU). We propose to avoid the ambiguous time-based terminology that has been used for different events by different authors. Instead, our results from the on-land stratigraphy show two main unconformities in northern Sarawak; one at c. 37 Ma (Rajang Unconformity), marking the change from deep marine to fluvial-marginal marine sedimentation, and another one at c. 17 Ma (Nyalau Unconformity) which is related to widespread uplift in Borneo and changing river systems.

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“…It was originally introduced to describe the oceanic crusts that formerly occupied the region north of Borneo where the modern South China Sea is located and were then consumed by Middle Cenozoic subduction beneath Borneo (Hall, 2002;Holloway, 1982;Taylor & Hayes, 1983), but subsequently was also used for inferred oceanic crusts, now disappeared, of quite different ages, notably that interpreted to have been subducted during the Mesozoic (Hutchison, 1996;King, Hillis, Tingay, & Damit, 2010;Moss, 1998). Here, we follow the definition of the latest review by Hall and Breitfeld (2017) that the term Proto-South China Sea should be used only for the slab subducted beneath Borneo from Eocene to Early Miocene, while easier episodes of subduction in this region should be named differently and a proper term for the Cretaceous subducted oceanic crusts may be the Palaeo-Pacific Ocean. The western limit of the Proto-South China Sea subduction was the West Baram Line, and subducted slab can be tomographically imaged in the lower mantle (Hall & Spakman, 2015;Wu & Suppe, 2017;Zheng et al, 2016) although a relatively shallow mantle anomaly has also been proposed to correspond the slab (Tang & Zheng, 2013;Zahirovic et al, 2014).…”

Section: Birth and Demise Of The Proto-south China Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

Cretaceous–Palaeogene sedimentary evolution of the South China Sea region: A preliminary synthesis

et al. 2019

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Rocks in extensional settings are generally sensitive to destruction and erosion, resulting in poor preservation potential and accumulation of their eroded components. The South China margin was dominated by a prolonged extensional setting from Late Mesozoic to Early Cenozoic, and this geological history is exactly archived in sediments within and surrounding the present South China Sea. However, the sedimentary evolution of the region, especially prior to the continental breakup and oceanic spreading, remains an issue of uncertainty and controversy, mostly due to limited borehole penetration and poor seismic reflection data for deeply buried sequences, as well as the lack of reliable regional stratigraphic framework. Here, we illustrate the Cretaceous–Palaeogene sedimentary evolution of the South China Sea region by synthesizing relevant data from previous literature and our own observations and displaying the evolution of lithofacies in sequential palinspastic reconstructions. The preferred palaeogeographic scenarios incorporate the latest interpretations of the conjugate relationship between continental margins as well as the birth and demise of the hypothetical Proto‐South China Sea. The patterns of lithofacies and depositional environments at regional scales, along with available provenance data, clearly reveal sedimentary responses to the significant Mesozoic–Cenozoic transition of plate geodynamics and magmatism along the Asian margin and provide implications for the potential mechanism of Cenozoic extension represented by distinct yet continuous processes of continental rifting and oceanic spreading.

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Nature and demise of the Proto-South China Sea

Abstract: The term Proto-South

Cited by 110 publications

References 96 publications

Cenozoic Rotation History of Borneo and Sundaland, SE Asia Revealed by Paleomagnetism, Seismic Tomography, and Kinematic Reconstruction

Cenozoic Rotation History of Borneo and Sundaland, SE Asia Revealed by Paleomagnetism, Seismic Tomography, and Kinematic Reconstruction

A new upper Paleogene to Neogene stratigraphy for Sarawak and Labuan in northwestern Borneo: Paleogeography of the eastern Sundaland margin

Cretaceous–Palaeogene sedimentary evolution of the South China Sea region: A preliminary synthesis

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