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VIII- NEW GUINEA/ WEST PAPUA and XI- PAPUA NEW GUINEA

This combined volume on New Guinea of Bibliography 7.0 contains 262 pages with >2010 references in six sub-chapters from both the Indonesian western part (West Papua: VIII.1- VIII.3) and the eastern part of New Guinea island (Papua New Guinea; IX.11- IX.13).

It is subdivided in six areas:

The attached pdf consists of both a detailed bibliography as well as lengthy introductions for each of the sub-chapters.

Download pdf - VIII. NEW GUINEA (7.6 MB)

Geologically, the main island of New Guinea is composed of:

  1. The relatively undeformed Australian continental plate in the South, with Precambrian basement and relatively thin young sediment cover that is thickening into a foreland basin South of the Central Range;
  2. Central Range fold-thrust belt of imbricated Mesozoic-Miocene sediments that were deposited along the Australian plate continental margin, and deformed during Miocene collision events with West Pacific arc systems;
  3. Northern New Guinea 'Mobile Belt': a tectonically complex collage of Cenozoic Pacific oceanic arc systems, microcontinental blocks, ophiolites, metamorphics and Neogene sedimentary basins, the amalgamation of which was driven by the oblique convergence between the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates.
  4. The 'Birds Head' in the NW, which does not readily fit with any of the above three tectonic domains. Its basement of imbricated Silurian-Devonian deep marine sediments intruded by Permian-Triassic granitoids is much more similar to the Paleozic accretionary crust of PNG- East Australia than the Precambrian basement overlain by undeformed shallow marine Early Paleozoic of nearby West Papua.

VIII.1. New Guinea General and West Papua (Irian Jaya)

This sub-chapter VIII.1 of Bibliography 7.0 contains 768 references on the geology of the Indonesian western part of New Guinea, as well as regional papers that cover the entire New Guinea region.

The Indonesian, western part of New Guinea island is currently called West Papua; historically it has been known successively as Netherlands New Guinea, Irian Barat and Irian Jaya. The eastern part of the island is the independent nation of Papua New Guinea.

Elegant recent overviews of the regional geology and tectonics of New Guinea are by Baldwin et al. (2012) and Davies (2012).

The most comprehensive publication on the geology West Papua is still Visser and Hermes (1962), which summarizes the geological results of 30 years of petroleum exploration by the NNGPM (Shell-Caltex-Stanvac) consortium. Another book is by Dow et al. (2005), which is based on surface mapping work in the 1980's.

The Central Range of West Papua formed as a result of collision of the Australian-New Guinea continental margin with a volcanic arc, along a North-dipping subduction zone. This probably took place before the Middle Miocene, as metamorphic-ophiolitic detritus from the Central Range is found in sandstones of the Middle Miocene Makats Formation North of the foldbelt (Visser and Hermes 1962).

N-S x-section of W (highest) part of the Central Range, showing peaks up to 5000m elevation composed of folded Eocene-Oligocene New Guinea Limestone, and the large exposed Ertsberg ('copper mountain') porphyry copper deposit at about 4000m. The lower areas are composed of Paleozoic- Mesozoic clastics and carbonates (Dozy, 1939).

N-S x-section of W (highest) part of the Central Range, showing peaks up to 5000m elevation composed of folded Eocene-Oligocene New Guinea Limestone, and the large exposed Ertsberg ('copper mountain') porphyry copper deposit at about 4000m. The lower areas are composed of Paleozoic- Mesozoic clastics and carbonates (Dozy, 1939).

The northern margin of this Central Range collision zone is a belt of obducted ophiolites, that is underlain by a metamorphic sole that represents metamorphosed Jurasssic-Cretaceous deep marine distal continental margin clastics.

A second phase of uplift in the Late Pliocene-Pleistocene is apparent from the presence of outcrops of Late Pliocene dioritic intrusions, that crystallized at depth of at least a few kilometers, and are now exposed at altitudes of 4000m. Several of these intrusives are associated with world-class porphyry copper-gold mineralizations (Ertsberg, Grasberg, etc.). This uplift phase can be ascribed to slab breakoff/ collisional delamination after the underthusted Australian continental margin jammed the North-dipping subduction zone (Cloos et al. 2005).

Suggested reading: New Guinea General and West Papua (not a complete listing)

General, Tectonics Van Bemmelen 1939, 1949, 1953, Visser and Hermes 1962, Hermes 1974,Dow and Sukamto 1984, Pigram and Panggabean 1984, Pigram and Davies 1987, Pigram and Symonds 1991, Dow et al. 1985, 1988, 2005, Audley Charles 1991, Nash et al. 1993, Struckmeyer et al. 1993, Charlton 1996, 1998, 2010, Pubellier and Ego 2002, Stevens et al. 2002, Hill and Hall 2003, Hill et al. 2004, Sapiie and Cloos 2004, Cloos et al. 2005, Riadini and Sapiie 2012, Davies 2012, Baldwin et al. 2012, Gunawan et al. 2014, Fraser 2016, Webb and White 2016, Gold et al. 2017,Harrington et al. 2017, White et al. 2017, Argakoesoemah 2017, 2018,Kurniawan et al. 2018, Jost et al. 2018
Stratigraphy Pieters et al. 1983, Quarles van Ufford and Cloos 2005
North New Guinea Zwierzycki 1924, 1928, Williams and Amiruddin 1983, Wachsmuth and Kunst1986, Tregoning and Gorbatov 2004, Permana et al. 2005
Bintuni: Koesoemadinata 1976, Collins and Qureshi 1977, Pigram et al. 1982,Chevallier and Bordenave 1986, Dolan and Hermany 1988, Fraser et al. 1993, Perkins and Livsey 1993, O’Sullivan et al. 1995, Ratman 1997, Biantoro and Luthfi 1999, Casarta et al. 2004, Sutriyono 2006,Vera 2009, Lelono et al. 2010, Panuju et al. 2010, Prihanasto et al. 2011, Decker et al. 2009, Sapiie 2010, Handyarso and Padmawidjaja 2017, Birt et al. 2015, 2017, Hendro et al. 2016, Wisesa et al. 2017, Lie et al. 2018, Sahidu et al. 2018
Salawati Basin Redmond and Koesoemadinata 1976, Vincelette and Soeparjadi 1976,Froidevaux 1977, 1978, Phoa and Samuel 1986, Gibson-Robinson et al. 1986, 1990, Samuel et al. 1990, 1991, Djumhana and Syarief 1991, Livingstone et al. 1992, Mujito 1994, Wilson 1995, Subroto et al. 1996, Satyana 2001-2011, Idris et al. 2002, Syam et al. 2008, Arifin et al. 2017, Bernadi et al. 2018, Suseno et al. 2018
Lengguru Foldbelt Pigram et al. 1982, Dow et al. 1985, Belford 1989, Robinson et al. 1990,Sulaeman et al. 1990, Brash et al. 1991, Moffatt et al. 1991, Simandjuntak et al. 1994, Sutriyono 1999, 2003, 2005, Sutriyono and Hill 2002, Kendrick et al.. 2003, Oehlers 2005, Pajot and Dhont 2006, Bailly et al. 2009, De Sigoyer et al. 2011, Francois et al. 2016, Saragih et al. 2017
Cenderawasih BayDow and Hartono 1982, Tonny and Bagiyo 1993, Hadipandoyo et al. 1996, Baillie et al. 2009, 2011, Sapiie et al. 2010, Noble et al. 2016, Nurwani et al. 2017, Babault et al. 2018
Ophiolites Metamorphics:Van der Wegen 1971, Weyland 1999, Monnier et al. 1999, 2000, Warren and Cloos 2007, Weiland and Cloos 2007
Neogene Volcanism, Minerals McMahon 1994a,b, Mertig et al. 1994, O'Connor et al. 1994,Housh and McMahon 2000, Paterson and Cloos 2005, Pollard et al. 2005, Prendergast et al. 2005
Copper-gold deposits Dozy 1939, 2002, MacDonald and Arnold 1994, O'Connor et al. 1994, McMahon 1994, 1999, Mealey 1996, Rubin and Kyle 1997,Mathur et al. 2000, Sapiie 2000, Akhmad 2002, Prendergast 2003, 2005, Paterson, and Cloos 2005, Garwin 2013, 2015, Gibbins 2006,Leys et al. 2012, Cloos and Sapiie 2013, Hammarstrom et al. 2013, Soebari et al. 2013, Kyle et al. 2014, Henley et al. 2017

VIII.2. Misool

This brief sub-chapter VIII.2 contains 57 references of the geology on and around Misool island.

The Misool Island group between the West Papua 'Birds Head' and Seram, is generally regarded as part of the Birds Head plate, although there are arguments to make it a separate microplate that collided with the Birds Head in Oligocene time (Pigram and Davies 1987).

Misool is part of a long, young anticlinal trend that continues E to the Onin Peninsula, which is commonly interpreted as the result of a latest Miocene- Early Pliocene inversion event of a Jurassic (or older) rift system.

N-S cross section across C Misool Island

N-S cross-section across N-dipping Triassic- Tertiary sediments of C Misool island (Roggeveen 1939 in Van Bemmelen, 1949)

Overall dip of Misool island is to the North, so the South coast and adjacent islands have good outcrops of Paleozoic metamorphics, unconformably overlain by a relatively thick Late Triassic marine 'flysch' and reefal Misolia limestone, unconformably overlain by a relatively thin Middle? Jurassic- Cretaceous marine sequence. The Late Jurassic- mid Cretaceous is in bathyal pelagic limestone facies. The overlying Turonian- Maastrichtian marls are rich in Inoceramus, but also contain radiolitid rudists (Durania spp.).

The Jurassic- Cretaceous of Misool is locally rich in macrofossils (mainly molluscs and belemnites), which have lead to numerous classic paleontology studies (between 1901-1939 mainly German academics: Boehm, Krumbeck, Von Seidlitz, Soergel, Stolley, Wandel, Vogler, etc.; more recently Challinor, Westermann, Hasibuan, etc.).

It should be noted that the Paleozoic-Mesozoic stratigraphy of Misool is different from that of the Birds Head, Bintuni and the main 'body' of New Guinea, although this may possibly be explained by assuming a contiguous but more distal marine setting for Misool. Misool has no equivalent of the Permian coaly series or the Jurassic- Cretaceous shallow marine sands known from the Birds Head, Bintuni, Central Range, etc. It does have Late Triassic reefal limestones, rudist-bearing Upper Cretaceous, etc., which are absent elsewhere in New Guinea (except in the probably displaced Kubor Terrane in PNG).

The Misool surface geology map clearly shows a mid-Oligocene unconformity: Miocene carbonates thin West-ward from over 1300m to 100m and overlap successively older rocks, suggesting an Oligocene uplift event, most pronounced in the West.

Suggested Reading Misool: (not a complete listing)

General, Tectonics Wanner 1910, Boehm 1924, Froidevaux 1974, Skwarko 1981, Pigram et al. 1982, Pairault et al.2003
Stratigraphy, Paleontology Krumbeck 1911, 1913, 1934, Soergel 1913, 1915,Challinor 1989, 1991, Hasibuan 1987-2012


VIII.3. Arafura Shelf

This small small sub-chapter VIII.3 of Bibliography 7.0 contains 57 references on the area of the Arafura Shelf. It includes a number of references from the adjacent Australian part of the Arafura Sea.

The Arafura Sea straddles Indonesian and Australian parts of the NW Shelf- West Papua continental margin. The geology of the area is relatively poorly known. A review of the Australian sector of the Arafura Sea is by Struckmeyer et al. (2006).

Recent deep seismic data shows the presence of a locally very thick Precambrian sediment section below much of the Arafura Sea (>15 km; Granath et al. 2012). Below the Arafura Sea shelf is a >700 km long, N-S trending Upper Proterozoic intra-continental rift basin that extends between West Papua in the North to the Australian Goulburn Graben in the South, (Granath et al. 2012, Miharwatiman et al. 2013). It is probably related to the MacArthur basin and other Precambrian basins of North Australia.

The Proterozoic rift series is overlain by a Paleozoic passive margin section (Cambrian- Permian?), which is gently folded and unconformably overlain by thin, undeformed Cretaceous- Tertiary sediments.

Two recent dry wells were drilled in 2010-2011, Aru-1 and Mutiara Putih-1. The Mutiara Putih well penterated a 15,000' thick Ordovician- Permian section, with a Permian/ Ordovician unconformity. Reservoir quality of the Paleozoic section was found to be extremely poor in both wells, and is suggestive of significant uplift and erosion below the Base Jurassic unconformity (15,000' at the Aru 1 structure) Miharwatiman et al. 2013).

There is thickening of post-Precambrian sediments in three different areas and times. The NW-SE trending Goulburn Graben in the Australian sector of the Arafura Sea preserves a relatively thick Paleozoic section. This rift system was inverted in the Triassic and significantly eroded after that. No equivalent system is known from the indonesian sector, except perhaps the thick Paleozoic section outcropping immediately South of the West Papua onshore Central Range foldbelt.

Jurassic- Cretaceous sediments thicken towards the present-day continental margin in the West, in the direction of the Banda Sea. Significant thickening of Oligocene and younger sediments is observed to the North, towards the South coast of West Papua, reflecting increased subsidence in the foredeep of the New Guinea Central Range foldbelt.

The Aru Islands appear to be part of a broad arch of upwarped Neogene shelf deposits, parallel to adjacent trench, and may represent part of a young, discontinuous 'forebulge' on the downgoing Australian passive margin plate.

Suggested Reading: Arafura Shelf (not a complete listing)

General, Tectonics Katili 1986, Bradshaw et al. 1990, Struckmeyer et al. 2006 Subroto and Noeradi 2008, Dinkelman et al. 2010, Granath et al. 2010, 2011, 2012, Miharwatiman et al. 2013, Livsey 2016, Gumilar 2017
Aru Trough Adhitama et al. 2016, 2017

IX.11. Papua New Guinea (main island)

Although not in Indonesian territory, the geology of Papua New Guinea is a continuation of the geology of West Papua, and therefore of interest for the understanding of West Papua and also microcontinental terranes in Eastern Indonesia

The reference list for sub-chapter IX.11 of Bibliography 7.0 contains 806 titles. Many of the classic papers on the regional geology of Papua New Guinea are by H. Davies, D. Dow, K. Hill and J. Milsom.

The Papua New Guinea chapter is subdivided into:

The geology and physiography of the main island of Papua New Guinea is a continuation of that of West Papua, albeit with several differences. Elevations of the PNG foldbelt are generally lower than in the West Papua Central Range. This presumably reflects that it is underlain by weaker basement of Paleozoic accretionary crust, in contrast with West Papua's relatively rigid Proterozoic and older continental crust (Hill and Hall, 2003).

The main island of Papua New Guinea is surrounded by a very tectonically complex and active region, which is part of the West Pacific domain. It is a mosaic of multiple oceanic marginal basins, separated by active and extinct volcanic-magmatic arcs and accretionary, ophiolite and metamorphic terranes. A good recent review of the tectonics of the area is by Baldwin et al. (2012).

The Coral Sea marginal basin opened in Late Cretaceous. The Solomon Sea opened in Eocene and is actively closing. The Bismarck Sea (Manus Basin) and Woodlark Basin are currently opening, partly due to the oblique convergence between the Pacific and Australia plates.

Suggested Reading: Papua-New Guinea: (not a complete listing)

General, Tectonics Glaessner 1950, Davies and Smith 1971, Dow 1977, Davies 1978, 1990, 2012, Davies et al. 1997, Milsom 1973, 1974, 1981, 1991, Dow 1977, Home at al. 1990, Hobson 1986, Cooper and Taylor 1987, Hill 1987, 1991 and others, Rogerson and Hilyard 1987, 1990, Smith 1990, Silver et al. 1991, Harrison and Milsom 1996, Thornton et al. 1996, Mason 1996, Webb and Woyengu 1999, Van Wyck and Williams 2002, Hill and Hall 2003, Hill et al. 2008, 2010, 2012, Pigram et al. 1989, 1990, Struckmeyer 1991, Klootwijk et al. 1993, 2003, Baldwin et al. 2012
Mesozoic Paleontology Schluter 1928, Glaessner 1945, Skwarko 1967-1983, Davey 1988, 1999, Challinor 1990, Matsumoto, and Skwarko 1991, 1993, Grant-Mackie et al. 2006, Bidgood et al. 2015
Oil-gas fields, plays Wade 1927, APC 1961, Durkee et al. 1987, Carey 1990, Matzke et al. 1992, Barndollar 1993, Grainge 1993, Murray et al. 1993, Surka 1993, Valenti 1993,Waples and Wulff 1996, Barrett 1996, 1997, 1999, Kaufman et al. 1997, Hebberger et al. 2000, Johnstone and Emmett 2000, George et al. 2004,Kawagle 2007, Bradey et al. 2008, Ahmed et al. 2012, Hanani et al. 2016, Boyd et al. 2016, Warburton et al. 2017
Papuan Ultramafic Belt Davies 1968, 1969, 1971, 1980, Milsom 1973, 2003, Connelly 1979, Jaques et al. 1978, 1980, 1981, 1983, Lus et al. 2004, Smith 2013,
Magmatic arcs, volcanism Johnson et al. 1971, 1973, 1978, 1982, MacKenzie et al. 1972, 1976, 1984, Page 1976, Holm 2013, Johnson 2013, Smith and Milsom 1984, Smith 2014
Mining Bamford 1972, Page and McDougall 1972, Grant and Nielsen 1975, Page and McDougall 1972, Page 1976, Mason and McDonald 1978, Titley et al. 1978, Watmuff 1978, Mason and Heaslip 1980, Asami and. Britten 1980, Lowenstein 1982, Fleming et al. 1986, Richards et al.1990, 1991, 1993, Hall et al. 1990, Corbett 1994, 2009, Gow et al. 2002, Van Dongen et al. 2007, 2010, 2013, Roberts et al. 2013, Hammarstrom et al. 2013, Pollard 2014, Large et al. 2018, Rinne et al. 2018