Bibliography of Indonesia Geology and Surrounding Areas

This chapter V of Bibliography 7.0 contains 140 pages with 970 titles on the Sulawesi region, subdivided in two sub-chapters, Sulawesi and Buton.

For discussions and papers on surrounding areas see also:

Makassar Straits: in Chapter IV (Borneo);
Celebes Sea: in Chapter IXa (Circum-Indonesia/ Asia);
Banggai-Sula islands: in Chapter VII (North Moluccas).

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

Download pdf - Chapter V. SULAWESI (4.56 MB)

V.1. Sulawesi

Sub-chapter V.1 contains 893 papers on the geology of the Sulawesi region.

Today Sulawesi is a triple junction of three major tectonic plates, Eurasia to the west, Pacific to the NE and Australia- New Guinea- Indian Ocean to the South and East. Its peculiar K-shape reflects a Cretaceous- Recent history with multiple episodes of subduction, collision and dismemberment of the active margin by hyperextension.

The ‘arms’ of Sulawesi represents three fundamentally different geologic provinces:

The SW and NW arms represent a Cenozoic volcanic arc complex that was built on Lower Cretaceous accretionary-collisional basement terrane. This basement formed part of the SE Sunda/ East Borneo active margin prior to Middle- Late Eocene rifting of Makassar Strait. It outcrops at several metamorphic basement complexes (Palu, Bantimala, Barru, etc.);
The North arm is mainly a (composite?) intra-oceanic volcanic arc terrane, built on Eocene oceanic crust. At its western end it contains the Paleozoic? Malino metamorphic complex; its eastern end it merges with the active, N-S trending Sangihe volcanic arc;
Central Sulawesi (including the western parts of the SE Arm) contains widespread metamorphic rocks, signifying both mid-Cretaceous 'normal' regional metamorphism, locally overprinted by Late Oligocene High P- Low T 'blueschist-facies' metamorphism (Parkinson 1991);
East and SE Arms of Sulawesi are dominated by outcrops of the Late Mesozoic East Sulawesi Ophiolite, one of the world's largest ophiolite complexes, which 'obducted' onto the Central Sulawesi metamorphic belt (around Oligocene time?).
At the East side of Sulawesi is the Banggai-Sula block, clearly derived from New Guinea, and collided with East Sulwesi in Late Miocene- Early Pliocene time. A Buton- Tukang Besi block at the SEside of Sulawesi is often proposed as a microcontinental block similar to Banggai-Sula, bit its history and origin are less obvious.

W-E cross-section through SW Sulawesi, showing rel. thick Eocene sandstones with coal on 'old slates', grading upward into limestone and intruded by large, young granitoid (Verbeek, 1908).

The West Sulawesi volcanic-plutonic arcs are built on pre-Late Cretaceous accretionary complexes, composed of high-pressure metamorphic rocks and ophiolites (outcrops of Bantimala, Barru, Latimojong basement complexes), which may have formed a single complex with the SE Kalimantan Meratus complex and also the Central Java Luk-Ulo complex (Wakita et al. 1996).

W-E cross-section through SW Sulawesi, showing highly folded Cretaceous, overlain by Eocene clastics with coal and Late Eocene Nummulites limestone', capped by volcanics ('T Hoen and Ziegler, 1915)

Intensely folded Late Cretaceous ‘flysch’ is overlain unconformably by less-deformed Eocene clastics with coals, which were surveyed in detail in the early 1900's, but were never deemed commercial. These are overlain by widespread Late Eocene Nummulites platform carbonates, and capped by thick Miocene and younger volcanics.

The tectonics of Sulawesi today is dominated by a few large sinistral strike-slip fault zones (Palu-Koro, Matano and Malili-Kendari). These faults accommodate the NW relative movements of parts of Sulawesi due to the continued convergence of Pacific, Australian and Eurasian Plates after the M Miocene collision of the Bangai-Sula microcontinent (Magetsari et al. 1987, etc.). As documented by paleomagnetic data, this convergence also caused the 60° counterclockwise rotation of the SW arm of Sulawesi (Panjaitan and Mubroto, 1994) and 90° clockwise rotation of the North arm.

This currently active NW-SE relative motion of the Sulawesi region also created young accretionary prisms/ fold-and-thrust belts at the N side of the North Arm (with subduction of Celebes Sea oceanic crust) and at the W side of West Sulawesi (with probable consumption of much of Makassar Straits basin floor below W Sulawesi in the last 10 My; e.g. Pubellier et al. 2005) .

East Sulawesi is characterized by one of the world's largest ophiolite complexes. Age of obduction is believed to be Late Eocene- Early Oligocene. .Below the relatively flat-lying ophiolite cover is a poorly known, but significant Late Triassic- Cretaceous marine sediment section. Milsom et al. (2000) suggested E Sulawesi, Buton, Buru and Seram were parts of a single microcontinent that separated from Australia in the Jurassic and collided with the Eurasian margin to form the Sulawesi orogen in the Oligocene.

Suggested Reading: Sulawesi (not a complete listing of all relevant papers)

General, Tectonics	Abendanon 1916, Audley-Charles 1974, Sukamto 1978, Van Leeuwen 1981, Panjaitan and Mubroto 1993, Magetsari et al. 1987, Coffield et al. 1993, Fraser et al. 1993, Bergman et al. 1996, Parkinson 1998, Villeneuve et al. 2000, 2002, Van Leeuwen and Muhardjo 2005, Van Leeuwen et al. 2007, 2010, Surono 2012, Surono and Hartono 2013, Advokaat et al. 2017
Active faulting, plate motions	Tjia 1973, Magetsari 1984, Walpersdorf et al. 1998abc, Stevens et al. 1998, Vigny et al. 2002, Bellier et al. 2001, 2006, Socquet et al. 2006, Watkinson 2010, Watkinson and Hall 2011, Natawidjaja, and Daryono 2015, Sarsito et al. 2017
C Sulawesi metamorphics (Pompangeo, Malino, etc.)	De Roever 1947, 1950, 1953, 1956, Egeler 1947, 1949, Helmers 1991, Parkinson 1998, Kadarusman & Parkinson 2000, Van Leeuwen et al. 2007, 2016, Permana 2013
SW Sulawesi mid-Cretaceous	Zulkarnain et al. 1993, 1995, 1999, Miyazaki et al. 1996, Wakita et al 1996, metamorphic-accretionaryParkinson et al. 1998, Soesilo & Sopaheluwakan 1998, Syafri 2004, complexesMaulana et al. 2010, 2013, Setiawan et al. 2013, 2016, Jaya et al. 2015, 2017, Hennig et al. 2017, White et al. 2017.
West Sulawesi volcanics	Coffield et al. 1993, Priadi et al. 1994, Bergman et al. 1996, granitesPolve et al. 1997, 2001, Elburg and Foden 1998, 1999, Soeria-Atmadja et al. 1999, Elburg et al. 2002, 2003, Priadi 2013, Maulana 2013, Maulana et al. 2016, Shaban et al. 2016,
SW Sulawesi stratigraphy	Hasan 1991, Wilson and Bosence 1996, Wilson et al. 2000, Van Leeuwen et al. 1981, 2005, 2010, Calvert 2000, Calvert and Hall 2003, 2007
Cenozoic paleogeography	Nugraha 2016, Nugraha and Hall 2018
East Sulawesi/ ophiolites	Koolhoven 1930, 1932, Kundig 1956, Monnier et al. 1994, 1995, Surono and Sukarna 1995 Surono 2012, Kadarusman et al. 2004, Dirk 2010, Permana and Surono 2013, Irzon and Baharuddin 2016
East/ SE Sulawesi	Mesozoic:Cornee et al. 1994, 1995, 1999, Martini et al. 1997, Milsom et al. 2000, Surono 1994, 1996, Surono and Bachri 2002
North Sulawesi volcanic arc	Koperberg 1929, Carlile et al. 1990, Bellon and Rangin 1991, Kavalieris et al. 1992, Van Leeuwen et al. 1994, Van Leeuwen and Muhardjo 2005.
Sulawesi Mineral deposits	Van Leeuwen and Pieters 2011, 2013, Robinson et al. 2013, Hakim et al. 2018

V.2. Buton, Tukang Besi Islands

Sub-chapter V.2 contains 76 papers on the geology of the Buton and Tukang Besi islands.

Buton and the adjacent Tukang-Besi islands are located SE of the SE arm of Sulawesi and are frequently viewed as one or even two small microcontinental plates that collided with SE Sulawesi in Miocene time. However, Buton and SE Sulawesi have a similar imbricated Late Triassic- Paleogene complex that is overlain by remnants of an obducted ophiolite sheet, and it seems more reasonable to view the geology of Buton as a continuation of SE Sulawesi (Kolonodale Block of Villeneuve et al. 2010; see also papers by Cornee, Martini, Surono, etc. ).

The cross-section below illustrates the deformational style of Buton, and brackets the age of main folding between Middle Eocene and earliest Miocene: intensely folded Late Triassic- Middle Eocene marine pelagic sediments, unconformably overlain by relatively little deformed (latest Oligocene?-) Miocene and younger marine sediments.

W-E cross-section through Tobelo Mts of N Buton

W-E cross-section through Tobelo Mts of North Buton, showing west-dipping, isoclinally folded, Late Triassic-Eocene series, unconformably overlain by Miocene- Pliocene Tondo Fm clastics (light red: Triassic Winto clastics and carbonates; blue-grey Jurassic; Ogena and Rumu Fms; light green: Cretaceous- Middle Eocene pelagic carbonates of Tobelo Fm; yellow: Miocene- younger Tondo Fm marls and clastics). (Hetzel, 1936).

Buton is famous for its Late Triassic oil shales and Tertiary tar sands.

Buton General	Hetzel 1936, Sartono et al. 1990, Davidson 1991, Smith and Silver 1991, Sikumbang et al. 1995, Milsom et al. 1999, Milsom 2000.
Neogene history	Wiryosujono and Hainim 1978, Smith 1983, Fortuin et al. 1990
Buton asphalt	Bothe 1928, Hetzel 1936, Tobing 2005, Triono 2005, Hadiwisastra 2009, Hadiyanto et al. 2009, Satyana 2011, Satyana et al. 2013
Paleontology	Martin 1935, 1937, Beets 1943, 1952, Keijzer 1945, 1953, Reinhold 1952, Ling and Smith 1995, Soeka 1991, Jansen 1999.
Tukang Besi islands	Escher 1920, Kuenen 1928, Hetzel 1930, Umbgrove 1943, Koswara and Sukarna 1994.

V. SULAWESI - BUTON