IPA16-21-G
PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION
Fortieth Annual Convention & Exhibition, May 2016
NEOGENE PLATE TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF THE BANDA ARC
Tim R. Charlton*
ABSTRACT
The Banda Arc in eastern Indonesia is at the core of
the three-plate collisional interaction between
Australia, Sundaland and the Pacific. Arc-continent
collision around the Banda Arc has developed
largely since the Late Miocene, but earlier key
tectonic events include backarc spreading in the
North Banda Basin commencing during the Middle
Miocene, and earlier phases of arc-continent
collision and strike-slip translation extending back to
the Oligocene or Early Miocene.
New plate reconstructions for the Banda Arc region
are presented at 1m.y. intervals since 30Ma. Two
fundamental differences between the new and
previous reconstructions (e.g. Hall, in Spakman and
Hall, 2010) are a substantial (>30°) counterclockwise
rotation of the Bird’s Head since ~6Ma, and the
origin of backarc spreading in the North and South
Banda Basins by a process of ‘fixed slot’ subduction
geometry, not trench rollback.
Since 30Ma, 4 distinct phases of plate movement are
interpreted:
 30-18Ma: Initial collision and then indentation
of the ‘Greater Sula Spur’ Australian continental
promontory into an eastward continuation of the
present Sunda Arc subduction system.
 18-12Ma: Terranes north of the Sorong Fault
Zone including eastern Sundaland moving WSW
relative to Australia, with the motion of the
Pacific plate.
 12-6Ma: Development of the proto-Banda Arc,
with relative motion between Sundaland and
Australia accommodated by fixed-slot backarc
spreading in the North Banda Basin.
 6-0Ma: Collision around the Banda Arc, and
overtightening of the arc curvature by the
counterclockwise rotation of the Bird’s Head.
INTRODUCTION
The Banda Arc forms the core of the complex eastern
Indonesia arc-continental collision zone (Figure 1).
* Consultant Geologist
The region comprises an amalgam of continental,
island arc and oceanic terranes bounded by an array
of compressional, extensional and lateral strike-slip
boundaries. The Banda collision zone has developed
largely since the Late Miocene (see discussion
below), but this is only the end of a longer phase of
regional arc-continent collisional orogenesis and
predominantly left-lateral shear in the Sorong Fault
system recorded in northern New Guinea and many
other smaller terranes of northern east Indonesia.
This earlier orogenesis extends back to at least the
Early Miocene (e.g. Hall, 1996) and probably into
the Oligocene (Charlton, 2000).
Numerous previous interpretations and
reconstructions for the evolution of the Banda Arc
region have been proposed, either schematically (e.g.
Audley-Charles et al., 1972, 1988; Hamilton, 1979;
Norvick, 1979; Daly et al., 1991; Hinschberger et al.,
2005; Villeneuve et al., 2010) or as more systematic
microplate/terrane reconstructions (Hall, 1996;
Charlton, 2000). The most detailed reconstructions
are those by Hall and co-workers (Hall, 2001, 2002,
2012; Spakman and Hall, 2010, etc.) including serial
animations at one million year intervals (in Spakman
and Hall, 2010). The present paper presents a new
animation in one million year steps which is a
development of the five million year interval
reconstructions in Charlton (2000). The focus of the
present reconstructions is on only the core region of
the eastern Indonesia collision complex immediately
around the Banda Arc, and does not yet extend to the
Pacific margins of eastern Indonesia in northern New
Guinea and the Halmahera region.
The new reconstructions differ from those of Hall (in
Spakman and Hall, 2010, etc.) in a number of
aspects, three of which will be highlighted briefly
here:
- The shape of the pre-collisional northern
Australian continental margin that collided with
Asia-Pacific arc systems in the mid-Tertiary;
- The rotation of the Bird’s Head structural block;
- The dynamics of Neogene backarc spreading in
the North and South Banda Basins.
Reconstruction of the pre-mid Tertiary northern
Australian continental margin
Prior to mid-Tertiary arc-continent collision, it
appears generally agreed that the northern rim of the
Australian continent was delimited largely or
entirely by passive margins. The precise shape of this
margin is far from certain, however, although a
northwestern promontory reconstructed to include
many of the continental terranes of present-day
eastern Indonesia is a feature of many pre-collisional
restorations (e.g. Norvick, 1979; Audley-Charles et
al., 1988; Daly et al., 1991; Lee and Lawver, 1995).
In the early Tertiary immediately prior to collision,
this ‘Greater Sula Spur’ (after Klompé, 1954) may
have formed a continental margin plateau analogous
to the present Exmouth Plateau off western Australia.
Figures 2B and 2C show two alternative
reconstructions of pre-collisional northern Australia.
The reconstruction in Figure 2B is from Hall (in
Spakman and Hall, 2012), and shows a Sula Spur
elongated in an east-west direction with the
constituent continental terranes (Seram, Buru,
Buton, Banggai-Sula, eastern Sulawesi etc.)
occupying locations broadly similar to their present
positions relative to the Bird’s Head block of western
New Guinea, with only minor lateral movements
restored primarily by excision of Miocene spreading
in the North Banda Basin (see below). Alternatively,
the reconstructed continental fragment of the present
study (Figure 2C) is a more equidimensional block,
rather shorter in an east-west direction but broader in
a north-south direction. The reconstruction in Figure
2C is obtained by restoring the Banggai-Sula-East
Sulawesi, Buton-Southeast Sulawesi and Banda
Ridges continental fragments (Figure 2A) north of
the Bird’s Head continental block (see the
reconstructions). This restoration is a development of
the restoration in Charlton (2000), differing mainly
in the inclusion of a distinct Banda Ridges
continental fragment. This fragment, now located in
the central Banda Sea, is only poorly known in terms
of both structure and stratigraphy, but clearly
includes substantial Australian continental material
(Silver et al., 1985; Villeneuve et al., 1994, 2010).
The generally submarine morphology of the Banda
Ridges block may indicate that any continental crust
is substantially thinned, which may suggest that the
original continental margin block was rather smaller
than that shown in the reconstructions. In the absence
of good structural data from the central Banda Sea,
however, the Banda Ridges are here reconstructed as
a single, simple structural block.
There is not space within the present paper to discuss
in detail the relative merits of the two main
alternative (or other) reconstructions of the Greater
Sula Spur region. Clearly, however, these
alternatives could be tested independently by pre-
Neogene palaeogeographic reconstructions.
Rotation of the Bird’s Head structural block
The Bird’s Head structural block of western New
Guinea is rotating counterclockwise relative to
Australia at the present day, as established by GPS
data (Bock et al., 2003). Hall’s reconstructions do not
indicate significant rotation of the Bird’s Head
through the Neogene orogenesis, implying that in
Hall’s interpretations this rotation is only a very late-
stage phenomenon. In contrast, the reconstructions in
the present study interpret approximately 34° of
counterclockwise rotation of the Bird’s Head block
relative to Australia through the Neogene, with most
of the rotation occurring since ~6Ma (cf. Charlton,
2000). As also discussed in Charlton (2010), this
present-day coherent block rotation appears to
include the Halmahera region in addition to the
Bird’s Head, and a structurally composite kinematic
entity, the Bird’s Head-Halmahera Microplate,
seems to be indicated by the GPS data (Figure 3A).
This microplate rotates counterclockwise around a
pole located to the south of the Aru Islands relative
to Australia (pole at 9.4°S, 134.3°E, rotation -
4.7°/m.y.: Charlton, 2010). Determination of this
rotation pole relative to Australia also implies
clockwise rotation relative to the Pacific around a
pole located NE of Halmahera (pole at 2.6°N,
129.0°E, rotation 4.3°/m.y.) based on the Pacific-
Australia rotation pole of de Mets et al. (1994)
(Figure 3B).
The origin of Banda Sea Neogene backarc
spreading: trench rollback or fixed slot?
The North and South Banda Basins (Figures 1 and
2A) developed by Neogene backarc oceanic
spreading, with the northern basin forming between
~12.5-7.1Ma (Hinschberger et al., 2000) and the
southern basin between ~6.5-3.5Ma (Hinschberger et
al., 2001). This backarc spreading has been widely
attributed to the process of trench or slab rollback
(Hamilton, 1979, 1988; Hall, 2002, 2011, 2012;
Harris, 2006; Spakman and Hall, 2010). In this
interpretation older, denser oceanic crust in the
subducting plate sinks faster into the mantle than
adjacent sections of younger, less-dense crust,
forcing the subduction front to advance more rapidly
over the older subducting crust. The relative motion
between the more rapidly advancing forearc-
volcanic arc sector and the rest of the upper plate is
accommodated by oceanic extension (backarc
spreading) behind the advancing arc (Figure 4A). In
the case of the Banda Arc, it is assumed (e.g.
Spakman and Hall, 2010) that the pre-collisional
continental margins around the present Banda Arc
were bordered by old and dense Jurassic aged
oceanic crust, allowing a rapid advance of the
subduction front into the Banda Embayment, a pre-
existing passive margin concavity on the NW margin
of the Australian continent (Figure 2C). In the
rollback interpretation this rapid advance of the
Banda forearc relative to the Sunda forearc was
compensated by oceanic extension in the North and
South Banda Basins.
An alternative explanation for the Neogene backarc
spreading can be described in terms of a subduction
zone with a fixed slot geometry. During the Middle-
Late Miocene (12-6Ma) the eastern end of the Sunda
Arc subduction system would have terminated in
some unspecified manner against the Australian
coninental margin at a point ‘P’ (Figure 4B). As
Australia continued to move northward relative to
Sundaland, Point P would be displaced northward,
attempting to drag the eastern tip of the arc
northward relative to the subduction front further
west. A fixed slot geometry for the subduction zone
implies, however, that the subduction system has a
large component of intertia, favouring the subduction
front maintaining a linear trend, broadly east-west in
the case of the Sunda Arc. The northward
displacement of Point P relative to Sundaland is
alternatively accommodated by backarc extension.
This backarc spreading would ideally form a
triangular extension zone (sphenochasm) with the
spreading rate matching the Sundaland-Australia
plate convergence rate at the eastern margin of the
extension zone adjacent to the Australian continent,
but dying out to zero at the western tip of the
extension zone. This is the origin of the Neogene
Banda backarc spreading as interpreted in the
reconstructions presented here.
BANDA AREA RECONSTRUCTIONS, 30MA
TO PRESENT
Figure 5 presents an interpretation for the evolution
of the Banda Arc region since 30Ma at one million
year intervals. The reconstructions utilise a number
of discrete semi-rigid structural blocks that are
moved within the collision zone by the relative
movements of the bounding megaplates (the Pacific,
Eurasia and Australia-Indian Ocean: Figure 1, inset),
and by interaction with the other blocks within the
collision zone. The crustal blocks recognised (Figure
2A) are:
 The autochthonous Australian continent and the
Indian Ocean. Plate motions are displayed in
Figure 5 relative to Australia, and hence the
essentially undeformed body of the Australian
continent is held constant through the
reconstructions.
 The Bird’s Head-Halmahera (BHH) Microplate.
This is a geologically composite body consisting
of both a lightly deformed continental block in
the Bird’s Head, and older arc-continent
collision complexes in the smaller islands to the
north of the Sorong Fault Zone (Halmahera,
Bacan, Obi, Waigeo etc.: Figure 1). In the
reconstructions the BHH block is moved as a
single body back to 6.5Ma, the time at which
backarc spreading commenced in the South
Banda Basin (Hinschberger et al., 2001). The
interpreted driving force for movement of the
BHH Microplate during this time is a push force
from the motion of the Pacific relative to
Australia, and the position of the BHH block is
reconstructed by moving the GPS-determined
BHH-Pacific rotation pole near Halmahera
(Figure 3) with the Pacific plate through the
interval 6.5-0Ma. The southern tip of the BHH
Microplate is interpreted as remaining
essentially fixed relative to Australia, and the
sequential relocations of the BHH block in the
6Ma to 0Ma reconstructions are best-fits
between the relative motions of these two
rotation poles. The motions of the Halmahera
area terranes north of the Sorong Fault Zone are
not reconstructed prior to 6Ma.
 Northern Banda Arc (Buru-Seram). Buru and
Seram islands form the present-day northern
sector of the Banda forearc collision complex.
Eastern Seram has a foreland fold and thrust belt
structure, while western Seram and Buru are
dominated by Australian continental basement
exhumed by late orogenic extension (Pownall et
al., 2013). In the reconstructions Buru-Seram is
moved essentially with the Bird’s Head block. A
small triangular pull-apart basin (sphenochasm)
between Seram and Buru (discussed in Charlton,
2000) is restored schematically between the 2Ma
and 3Ma reconstructions. The Banda forearc
deformation in Seram is not shown in detail, but
is indicated schematically by the Banda
deformation front moving through the island
from about 5Ma. This foreland fold and thrust
belt deformation in Seram is indicated as
commencing in the Early Pliocene, which is
earlier than interpreted in Hall’s reconstructions.
Pairault et al. (2003) interpreted Seram
 deformation as postdating the Early Pliocene,
but the Wahai Formation in the syn/post-
orogenic basins unconformably above the Seram
fold and thrust belt extends back to the Early
Pliocene (Zillman and Paten, 1975), indicating
that Banda orogenesis was already underway in
Seram during the Early Pliocene.
 Banggai-Sula-East Sulawesi and Buton-
Southeast Sulawesi. Eastern Sulawesi comprises
continental fragments of Australian affinity
overlain by non-Australian elements including
the East Sulawesi Ophiolite. The two eastern
arms of Sulawesi together with their Australian-
affinity continental extensions to the east
(Banggai-Sula and Buton-Tukangbesi) are
treated in the reconstructions as two rigid blocks
that originated to the north of the Bird’s Head
block, and were transported westward relative to
the Bird’s Head in the left-lateral Sorong Fault
system. The Banggai-Sula-East Sulawesi block
retained its essentially east-west orientation
through the Neogene orogenesis, but it is
interpreted that Buton-Southeast Sulawesi has
rotated more than 90° counterclockwise during
the Neogene (see the reconstructions).
 Banda Ridges. This is a poorly constrained
continental fragment located in the central Banda
Sea between the North and South Banda Basins
(Figure 2A). As already discussed above, the
reconstructed block shown is based on its
maximum present-day extent, which is probably
larger than it was when it formed a crustal
fragment within the Australian continental
margin. In the reconstructions the Banda Ridges
block restores against the southern edge of the
Banggai-Sula block by elimination of the North
Banda Basin oceanic spreading, and then
together with Banggai-Sula restores north of the
Bird’s Head by reversal of left-lateral motion on
the Sorong Fault Zone between 18-12Ma (see
below).
 Western Sulawesi-Southeast Sundaland. These
structural blocks (Figure 2A) are interpreted
(following Charlton, 2000) as the pre-Neogene
direct eastward continuation of the Sunda Arc
subduction zone. The structural elements shown
in Figure 2A are the same as interpreted in
Charlton (2000, figure 3). Three sub-blocks are
defined that move relative to Sundaland
(represented in Figure 2A by the Paternoster
Platform): Northwest Sulawesi, West Sulawesi
and Southeast Sundaland. Relative movement
between Northwest and West Sulawesi is
accommodated in the reconstructions by
movement on the Palu-Koro Fault; movement
between West Sulawesi and Southeast
Sundaland on the Walanae Fault; and movement
between Southeast Sundaland and the
Paternoster Platform as minor but schematic
extension/compression through rotation around a
local pole near to the boundary between the two
blocks.
Kinematics of the collision model
The modelled evolution of the eastern Indonesia
collision complex can be described in distinct time
intervals:
 30-18Ma: Indentation of northern Australia into
the Asia-Pacific bounding arc (the former
eastward continuation of the Sunda Arc). The
northern edge of the ‘Greater Sula Spur’
marginal plateau collided with the arc sector that
corresponds to present-day western Sulawesi. As
indentation progressed, the deformation front
became markedly arcuate, concave around the
point of greatest resistance on the northern
margin of the Greater Sula Spur near present-day
Banggai island. The reconstructions document
non-Australian terranes only to the west of the
Banggai indendation point, which subsequently
become the western Sulawesi and Southeast
Sundaland blocks. To the east of Banggai the
deformation front swung into parallelism with
the northern edge of the Sula fragment and
northern New Guinea by the end of this interval,
but the terranes of what was subsequently to
become the Pacific margin of northern New
Guinea, the Halmahera area of NE Indonesia and
the southern Philippines are not documented in
the present reconstructions.
 18-12Ma: Westward displacement on the Sorong
Fault Zone. During the interval 18-12Ma the
Maramuni volcanic arc was active in northern
New Guinea, recording southward subduction
beneath the northern Australian continental
margin (Dow, 1977; Pieters et al., 1983). To the
west the reconstructions suggest that the
Maramuni subduction system linked into a left-
lateral transcurrent plate boundary, the Sorong
Fault Zone (cf. Hall, 2001). This fault system is
interpreted in the reconstructions to have cut
through the Greater Sula Spur continental
promontory between the present Bird’s Head
block and the Banda Ridges-Banggai-Sula-
Sulawesi-Buton fragments, displacing these
latter terranes westward with the velocity of the
 Pacific relative to Australia during the 18-12Ma
time interval. Note that in the reconstructions
eastern Sundaland is also interpreted to move
with the Pacific plate motion vector relative to
Australia through this time. This is an inference
from the model with no direct supporting
evidence in the regional geology of eastern
Indonesia. A potential test of this model is
therefore whether the implied change in
Sundaland kinematics between 18-12Ma is
consistent with the geology of western
Indonesia.
 12-6Ma: Resumed SSW motion of Sundaland
with the Eurasian plate relative to Australia.
Subduction of Indian Ocean crust at the eastern
Sunda Arc, which had been interrupted by the
continental indentation of the arc (30-18Ma) and
the WSW displacement in the Sorong left lateral
system (18-12Ma) resumed at ~12Ma, with the
Sunda volcanic arc propagating eastward along
the southern margin of the Banda Ridges
continental fragment, initiating the Alor-Wetar
sector of the present Banda volcanic arc. As
outlined above, northward motion of northern
Australia relative to the eastern Sunda Arc is
interpreted as compensated by backarc spreading
in the North Banda Basin with a fixed slot
geometry (Figure 4B), not as a consequence of
trench rollback.
 6-0Ma: Counterclockwise rotation of the Bird’s
Head-Halmahera Microplate (relative to
Australia). Through the interval 12-6Ma relative
motion between the Pacific and Australia was
probably taken up by a system of dominantly
left-lateral strike-slip faults that were a
continuation of the Sorong Fault system, but
during this later phase (following the 18-12Ma
phase of activity on the main strand of the
Sorong system) directed rather further to the
north, moving terranes in the direction of the
Philippines. This deformation is not documented
here, but is indicated schematically in the 7Ma
reconstruction (Figure 5). By that time the
forerunner crustal fragment of present-day
Halmahera may have occupied a position
broadly in its present relationship to the Bird’s
Head crustal block. At about 6-7Ma the
reconstuctions suggest that the left-lateral
system between Halmahera and the Bird’s Head
became inactive, welding the Bird’s Head and
Halmahera into a composite kinematic block, the
Bird’s Head-Halmahera (BHH) Microplate. The
northern tip of the BHH Microplate is modelled
as moving with the Pacific plate, while the
southern tip of the block remained attached to
northern Australia. This coupling of the BHH
Microplate both to the Pacific in the north and
Australia in the south caused the block to rotate
counterclockwise relative to Australia
(clockwise relative to the Pacific: Figure 3C),
inducing compression in the Banda Arc region to
the west, and extension in Cenderawasih Bay-
Aru Trough to the east of the BHH block (Figure
3A; Charlton, 2010). During this interval relative
motion between the eastern Sunda Arc and
Australia was initially compensated by further
‘fixed slot’ backarc spreading, now located in the
South Banda Basin (~6.5-3.5Ma: Hinschberger
et al., 2001). Since 3.5Ma, however, the relative
displacement between Sundaland and Australia
has been accommodated by rotation of the BHH
Microplate. Also during this interval the eastern
sector of the ‘Sunda’ Arc (the present Banda
Arc) began to collide with the Australian
continental margin, initially in both Seram and
Timor during the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene,
and subsequently during the Late Pliocene in the
eastern Banda Arc in Tanimbar and Kei. The
present 180° curvature of the Banda Arc is a
consequence of the original embayed shape of
the Australian continental margin (Figure 2C),
but enhanced by the interpreted >30°
counterclockwise rotation of the Bird’s Head
block and the northern Banda Arc relative to the
autochthonous Australian continental margin
and the southern Banda Arc.
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Figure 1 - Tectonic setting of the Banda Arc, eastern Indonesia. Inset: Relative plate motions between the
Australian, Eurasian and Pacific plates.
Figure 2 - Reconstructing the pre-collisional northern Australian continental margin. A: Microcontinental
fragments in the restorations (Figure 5). B: Hall’s reconstruction (in Spakman & Hall, 2012). C:
Reconstruction in the present study.
Figure 3 - The Bird’s Head-Halmahera (BHH) Microplate. A: Seismicity, GPS motion vectors relative to
Australia (Bock et al., 2003) and rotation poles (Charlton, 2010). B: GPS-determined motions
relative to Australia. C: GPS-determined motions relative to the Pacific plate. Earthquake data in
‘A’ from USGS Earthquake Hazard Program, magnitude >5.2.
Figure 4 - Alternative geometries to account for backarc spreading. A: trench rollback, where rapid
subduction of old, dense oceanic crust causes advance of the forearc-volcanic arc relative to the
remainder of the upper plate, compensated by backarc spreading. B: fixed slot subduction
geometry. The oceanic subduction front attempts to maintain a linear east-west geometry despite
the northern tip of the subduction zone (eastern Sunda/Banda Arc) being displaced northward with
the continent (Australia). The backarc spreading develops in a triangular pull-apart zone
(sphenochasm) with the rate of spreading equal to the full plate convergence rate against the
continental margin, but declining to zero at the western tip of the sphenochasm.
Figure 5 - Restorations of the Banda Arc collision complex at one million year intervals back to 30Ma. See
Figure 2A and the text for further details on the moving crustal fragments. The striped colouring
in the North and South Banda oceanic basins is illustrative only based on the spreading patterns
identified in Hinschberger et al. (2000, 2001). Crustal motions are displayed relative to Australia.
A full animated version of the reconstructions can be downloaded at www.timcharlton.co.uk.
Figure 5 - Restorations of the Banda Arc collision complex at one million year intervals back to 30Ma
(continued).
Figure 5 - Restorations of the Banda Arc collision complex at one million year intervals back to 30Ma
(continued).
Figure 5 - Restorations of the Banda Arc collision complex at one million year intervals back to 30Ma
(continued).
Figure 5 - Restorations of the Banda Arc collision complex at one million year intervals back to 30Ma
(continued).