spe436-10 page 

The Geological Society of America

Special Paper 436
2007

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia: The stratigraphic record of
eruptions on an active continental margin

Helen R. Smyth*
Robert Hall
Gary J. Nichols
SE Asia Research Group, Geology Department, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK

ABSTRACT

The stratigraphic record of volcanic arcs provides insights into their eruptive
history, the formation of associated basins, and the character of the deep crust
beneath them. Indian Ocean lithosphere was subducted continuously beneath Java
from ca.45Ma, resulting in formation of a volcanic arc, although volcanic activity
was not continuous for all of this period. The lower Cenozoic stratigraphic record
on land in East Java provides an excellent opportunity to examine the complete
eruptive history of a young, well-preserved volcanic arc from initiation to termi-
nation. The Southern Mountains Arc in Java was active from the middle Eocene
(ca.45Ma) to the early Miocene (ca.20Ma), and its activity included significant
acidic volcanism that was overlooked in previous studies of the area. In particu-
lar, quartz sandstones, previously considered to be terrigenous clastic sedimentary
rocks derived from continental crust, are now known to be of volcanic origin. These
deposits form part of the fill of the Kendeng Basin, a deep flexural basin that formed
in the backarc area, north of the arc. Dating of zircons in the arc rocks indicates
that the acidic character of the volcanism can be related to contamination of mag-
mas by a fragment of Archean to Cambrian continental crust that lay beneath the
arc. Activity in the Southern Mountains Arc ended in the early Miocene (ca.20Ma)
with a phase of intense eruptions, including the Semilir event, which distributed ash
over a wide area. Following the cessation of the early Cenozoic arc volcanism, there
followed a period of volcanic quiescence. Subsequently arc volcanism resumed in
the late Miocene (ca.1210Ma) in the modern Sunda Arc, the axis of which lies
50km north of the older arc.

Keywords: East Java, Indonesia, stratigraphic record, Cenozoic arc volcanism.

*Present address: Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme (CASP), 181A Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB30DH, UK

Smyth, H.R., Hall R., and Nichols, G.J., 2007, Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia: The stratigraphic record of eruptions on an active continental
margin, in Draut, A., Clift, P.D., and Scholl, D.W., eds., Formation and Applications of the Sedimentary Record in Arc Collision Zones: Geological Society of
America Special Paper 436, p. XXXXXX, doi: 10.1130/2007.2436(10). For permission to copy, contact editing@geosociety.org. 2007 The Geological Society
of America. All rights reserved.



 Smyth et al.
INTRODUCTION
The island of Java lies within the Indonesian archipelago
between the landmasses of Eurasia and Australia, on the margin
of the Eurasian plate. The southeastern part of this plate is known
as Sundaland (Fig.1), which is the Mesozoic continental core
of SE Asia (e.g., van Bemmelen, 1949; Hamilton, 1979). Java is
located on Sundalands southern margin.
Many studies of volcanic arcs are based on well-exposed
areas of arcs active long ago, such as the Cretaceous Allistos
Arc in Baja California (Busby et al., 2006) and the Cambrian
Ordovician Lough Nafooey Arc of the Irish Caledonides (e.g.,
Draut and Clift, 2001). There are few studies of younger arcs
in areas where active volcanism continues today. One reason for
this is that younger arc products cover older arc sequences. Fur-
thermore, many modern arcs are in tropical areas, such as Indo-
nesia, the Philippines, and the Western Pacific, that are difficult
to work in, commonly are not well exposed, and are remote. The
modern volcanoes on Java form part of the Sunda Arc, which is
well known for volcanic activity, including the famous nineteenth
century eruptions of Krakatau and Tambora, and the Pleistocene
eruption of Toba. However, despite a long volcanic record in
Java, owing to subduction of Indian Ocean lithosphere during the
Cenozoic, little is known of its pre-Pleistocene arc history.
Since the middle Eocene (ca.45Ma) there has been north-
ward subduction of the Indo-Australian plate at the Java Trench
to the south of Java (Hall, 2002). Consequently, Java is essen-
tially a volcanic island, and a long history of arc volcanism is
recorded in its Cenozoic stratigraphy. Products of both active and
ancient volcanic arcs can be observed. An east-westtrending
chain of >30 modern volcanoes, forming part of the Sunda Arc,
Malaya
SOUTH
CHINA
SEA
0 Borneo
Sumatra
Ja
va
SUNDALAND
Tre
JAVA
nc
SEA
h
INDIAN Java
OCEAN
10S
100E 110E
Figure1. Current plate tectonic setting of western Indonesia. The mar-
gin of Sundaland (Hamilton, 1979) is defined by a black dashed line.
The black arrows show relative plate motion of boundariesupper
plate movement relative to lower (McCaffrey, 1996). The study area is
enclosed by a rectangle.
spe436-10 page 
creates the central spine of the island of Java (Fig.2). An arc of
older, Eocene to Miocene volcanoes is parallel to and south of the
Sunda Arc and is known as the Southern Mountains Arc (Smyth
et al., 2005).
Exposures of basement rocks are rare in East Java, and
before this study the basement was thought to have formed dur-
ing the Cretaceous, when fragments of arc and ophiolitic mate-
rial were accreted to the southern margin of Sundaland (Wakita,
2000). There are no continental basement rocks at the surface
or reported from drilling in East Java. The basement is often
referred to as transitional, as to the north and west in Sunda-
land the basement is continental, and in the east near to Flores, it
is oceanic (e.g., Hamilton, 1979).
The Cenozoic stratigraphic record preserved on land in East
Java provides an excellent opportunity to examine the eruptive
history of a young, well-preserved volcanic arc. The present-
day arc, active since the middle to late Miocene (ca.1210Ma;
Soeria-Atmadja et al., 1994), is immediately obvious, but the
importance of the older Southern Mountains Arc has previously
been underestimated. The relatively basic volcanic products of
this arc, the Old Andesites (van Bemmelen, 1949), are widely
known because they are well exposed and form prominent topo-
graphic features. However, the acidic products of the arc, which
are widespread, have been largely overlooked. As a result of the
work reported here, abundant quartz-rich sedimentary rocks in
East Java are now known to be the primary and epiclastic prod-
ucts of acidic volcanism but were previously interpreted as conti-
nental sediments (e.g., Harahap et al., 2003). The acidic nature of
the erupted material is a reflection of the character of the underly-
ing crust, which as a result of new zircon dating is now thought to
include a fragment of Archean continental crust.
The full cycle of the Paleogene Southern Mountains Arc,
from initiation to termination, can be documented in the stratigra-
phy of East Java. This paper reports the stages of arc development
and the sequence and timing of events within the arc, determined
by detailed field investigations accompanied by provenance anal-
ysis and isotopic dating. Most of the middle Miocene was marked
by a period of volcanic quiescence that followed the termination
of Paleogene arc volcanism in the early Miocene (ca.20Ma).
Near the end of the middle Miocene (ca.1210Ma) the modern
Sunda Arc began activity in its present position, 50km north of
the Southern Mountains Arc. Possible explanations for the shift
in position of arc volcanism are discussed later in this paper.
PRESENT STRUCTURE OF EAST JAVA
East Java can be subdivided into three parts, broadly par-
allel to the elongation of the island, representing (1) the early
Cenozoic Southern Mountains Arc, (2) a deep basin north of the
arc, and (3) a marine shelf north of the basin (Figs.3 and 4). The
modern arc is built mainly on top of the basin north of the early
Cenozoic arc. We first summarize the principal features of these
components of Java and then go on to discuss the stratigraphy of
the Southern Mountains Arc.
 spe436-10 page 

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 

o
110 E
o
112 E EAST JAVA SEA
o
114 E A
Muria
igh
ang H
Remb
o
7 S
MADURA
Dieng Plateau
Kendeng Hills Surabaya

Karangsambung Madura Straits

Nanggulan EAST JAVA
Jiwo Hills

o
8 S
Yogyakarta Southern Mountains

0 50 100
INDIAN OCEAN
Kilometers

o
110 E
o
112 E
o
114 E B

o
7 S

Merapi

o
8 S

0 50 100
Kilometers

Figure2. East Java location map. (A) Important locations and topographic features. The black star marks the epicenter of the 27 May 2006
earthquake, and the currently active volcano Merapi is marked by the black triangle. (B) Digital elevation model from SRTM data (Shuttle Radar
Transect Mission, NASA) of East Java, with the centers of OligoceneMiocene volcanism marked.

Southern Mountains Arc
There are few exposures of basement rocks in Java, and in
East Java they are known only in the western part of the study
area. Based upon this limited evidence, the basement has been
interpreted to be arc and ophiolitic rocks of Cretaceous age. A
volcanic arc was built upon basement rocks from the middle
Eocene to the Miocene in southern Java (Smyth, 2005), which
is known to extend from East Java into West Java (Soeria-
Atmadja et al., 1994). The stratigraphic thickness of the arc
 spe436-10 page 

 Smyth et al.

110o E 112o E 114o E

A
Java Sea

Section line
7 S
o SUNDA SHELF
Madura Island

KENDENG BASIN

Merapi
CENTRAL JAVA
PROVINCE

MODERN SUNDA ARC

8o S
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS
ARC
Indian Ocean

0 50 100 B
EAST JAVA
Kilometers FORE-ARC BASIN

EOCENE TO MIOCENE
SOUTHERN
FORE-ARC
SUNDA SHELF KENDENG BASIN MOUNTAINS
BASIN
ARC
A B
?? ??
0 50 100
Km

Figure3. Structure of East Java in map-and-sketch Eocene to Miocene profile, showing the three structural provincesSouthern Mountains Arc,
Kendeng Basin, and the edge of the Sunda Shelfand the modern Sunda Arc building on top.

products is >2500m, and within this sequence andesites are well
known (van Bemmelen, 1949; Soeria-Atmadja et al., 1994), but
acidic volcanic rocks have not been previously reported. The
zone containing the arc products is 50km wide. The Southern
Mountains Arc is now uplifted and partially eroded. The strata
typically dip uniformly toward the south between 20 and 30.
Kendeng Basin
The Kendeng Basin lies directly behind and to the north of
the Southern Mountains Arc (Fig.2). The deposits of the basin are
poorly exposed. The depocenter is marked by a strong negative
Bouguer gravity anomaly of more than 580 m2 (Fig.5). The
negative anomaly can be traced eastward into a negative marine
free air anomaly (Sandwell and Smith, 1997), which extends from
the Straits of Madura eastward to the north of Bali. At the west
end of the Kendeng Basin a relatively abrupt change in the charac-
ter of the anomaly is around the modern volcanoes of Merapi and
the Dieng Plateau (Fig.5). To the west, in West Java, the anomaly
is not well defined, as it becomes positive (40 m2).
No basement rocks are exposed or known from drilling in this
region. The basin fill has an age range of middle Eocene to Mio-
cene, similar to the Southern Mountains Arc (de Genevraye and
Samuel, 1972). The basin is east-west oriented, at least 400km
long, parallel to the Southern Mountains Arc, and filled with a
succession of volcaniclastic turbidites and pelagic mudstones that
are reported to be at least 6km thick (Untung and Sato, 1978).
Gravity calculations indicate that the basin may contain as much
as 10km of sediment (C.J. Ebinger, 2005, personal commun.).
Based on field observations, seismic sections, and regional gravity
interpretation (Smyth, 2005), the basin is estimated to have been
~100120km wide during the early Cenozoic. It is now partially
exposed at the surface in the Kendeng Fold-Thrust Belt, where
there is an estimated 1030km of shortening (de Genevraye and
Samuel, 1972; Smyth, 2005); de Genevraye and Samuel (1972)
report that deformation commenced in the Pliocene.
 spe436-10 page 

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 

110o E 112o E 114o E

Rembang Java Sea

Muria 0 50 100
Kilometers

7 S
o SUNDA SHELF Madura Island
Semarang
(geology not shown)
Dieng
Plateau
Surabaya
KENDENG BASIN

Merapi

Karangsambung
8o S
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS
Yogyakarta
ARC
Indian Ocean
Jiwo Hills Pacitan
Southern Mountains Arc

Intrusive rocks Kendeng Basin

Kendeng

Modern volcanic and alluvial

Basin

Middle Miocene Carbonates Approximate southern deposits

Sunda Shelf

Middle Miocene reworked limit of the Kendeng

Basin (not exposed) Pliocene clastic and
volcaniclastic deposits
carbonate rocks

Oligo-Miocene volcanics
Modern Arc

Post-peneplane carbonate Fault

Eocene Sedimentary rocks Sunda Arc rocks
Basement rocks - Modern volcanic Fault (inferred)
Shelf edge clastic and
Cretaceous and older centers carbonate rocks

Figure4. Simplified geological map of East Java, showing the main geological provinces and stratigraphic units.

Edge of Sunda Shelf
To the north of the Kendeng Basin (Figs.2 and 4) the hills of
North Java and the offshore East Java Sea constitute an area inter-
preted to be the edge of the early Cenozoic Sunda Shelf (Hamil-
ton, 1979). This region has been the focus of most hydrocarbon
exploration. Pre-Cenozoic basement rocks sampled by drilling
are known to be ophiolitic and arc rocks, which include chert and
basic volcanic and metasedimentary rocks (e.g., Hamilton, 1979).
Basin development began in the Eocene. There are between 2000
and 6000m of Eocene to Pliocene shallow marine clastic and
extensive carbonate sedimentary rocks within fault-controlled
basins (e.g. Ardhana, 1993; Ebanks and Cook, 1993).
The sedimentary sequences have been deformed since the
late Miocene by numerous open, east-westoriented folds; north-
ward-verging, east-westoriented thrusts interpreted to be Plio-
cene in age; and ENE-WSW normal faults (Chotin et al., 1984;
Hoffmann-Rothe et al., 2001).
Modern-Day Volcanic Arc
The active volcanoes of the Sunda Arc are built mainly on
the Kendeng Basin (Figs.3 and 4) but locally overlap the edge
of the Southern Mountains Arc. Arc activity commenced in
its present position at ca.10Ma in the late Miocene (Soeria-
Atmadja et al., 1994). The volcanoes exceed 3000m in elevation
and form the central spine of the island (Fig.2). The average com-
position of the present-day volcanic products is basaltic andesite
(Nicholls et al., 1980), which is much more basic than the average
composition of the Southern Mountains Arc products. Most of
the active volcanoes are situated ~100km above the subducting
slab (England et al., 2004). There are also a number of unusual
K-rich backarc volcanoes (Edwards et al., 1991), which occur to
the north of the axis of the arc, including Muria (Fig.2). The erup-
tive and epiclastic products of the Sunda Arc cover a significant
proportion of the island, contributing to its fertile soils.
STRATIGRAPHIC RECORD OF THE EARLY
CENOZOIC SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS ARC
The sedimentary rocks in the Southern Mountains Arc in
East Java were deposited on the basement above a poorly dated
regional unconformity (Fig.6). The unconformity separates
Upper Cretaceous basement rocks and the Cenozoic succession,
suggesting a long period, potentially up to 30m.y., during which
uplift and erosion occurred. The stratigraphic succession above

 Smyth et al.
7o S SUNDA SHELF
Dieng
Plateau
75
0m
500
m
250m
o
8 S Merapi
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS ARC
0 50 100
Kilometers
o o
110 E
Figure5. Bouguer gravity anomaly map of East Java. The map also shows topographic contours at 250m intervals.
the unconformity in the Southern Mountains Arc and the Ken-
deng Basin has been subdivided into three synthems (Smyth
et al., 2005), each representing a different period of arc activity
(Fig.6). The term synthem has been used because much of the
work undertaken and published in East Java has been hydrocar-
bon oriented, and as a result the term sequence is often used with
seismic and sequence stratigraphic implications (e.g., Catuneanu,
2006). We have therefore chosen to avoid the term sequence for
the major stratigraphic subdivisions and in this study used the
term synthem, defined as an unconformity-bounded stratigraphic
package (Rawson et al., 2001). The three synthems are:
Synthem One: records the initiation of arc volcanism and
the early stages of arc development during the middle
Eocene (ca.45Ma) to early Oligocene (ca.3428Ma).
Synthem Two: records the growth and termination of arc vol-
canism in the Southern Mountains Arc during the late Oli-
gocene (ca.2823Ma) to the early Miocene (ca.20Ma).
Synthem Three: records widespread carbonate growth,
accompanied by the erosion and redeposition of rocks
from earlier synthems during the middle Miocene (ca.20
10Ma), with no significant volcanic activity.
In the account of the stratigraphy that follows, the strati-
graphic ages have been converted to numerical ages, using the
Gradstein et al. (2004) time scale.
Synthem One: Initiation of the Southern Mountains Arc
Most parts of the Southern Mountains rocks of Synthem
One are covered by younger deposits and are exposed only at
spe436-10 page 
-750 to -500
-500 to -250
-250 to 0
0 to 250
250 to 500
500 to 750
750 to 1000
1000 to 1250
1250 to 1500
1500 to 1750
KENDENG BASIN 1750 to 2000
ms-2
o
112 E 114 E
Karangsambung, Nanggulan, and the Jiwo Hills (Fig.2). Syn-
them One is not exposed in the Kendeng Basin but was sampled
in blocks brought to the surface by mud volcanoes.
Southern Mountains Arc
Basement exposures in East Java are rare and are found only
in the western part of the area at Karangsambung and the Jiwo
Hills (Fig.2). The exposed basement rocks are Cretaceous in age
(Parkinson et al., 1998; Wakita and Munasri, 1994) and include
basaltic pillow lavas, radiolarian cherts, various metasedimen-
tary lithologies, quartz-mica schist, and high-grade metamor-
phic rocks including jadeite-quartz-glaucophanebearing rocks
and eclogites. Quartz veins are commonly observed within the
basement exposures and have not been identified in the overly-
ing Cenozoic rocks. The high-grade metamorphic rocks have
been interpreted to indicate subduction zone metamorphism
(Miyazaki et al., 1998). The basement rocks are interpreted to
represent fragments of arc and ophiolitic material accreted to the
margin of Sundaland during the Late Cretaceous. Similar rocks
have previously been assumed to extend beneath the rest of East
Java, where there is no information from surface exposures or
drilling (e.g., Hamilton, 1979; Parkinson et al., 1998).
Synthem One is ~1000m thick but is exposed only in the
western part of the Southern Mountains Arc in East Java. The
oldest sedimentary rocks rest directly on the basement above a
regional angular unconformity. They are poorly dated fluvial con-
glomerates and interbedded sandstones (Figs.7A and 8) and are
at least 50m thick, but their total thickness is difficult to assess
owing to limited and patchy exposures. These are the only rocks
 spe436-10 page 

TECTONIC ENVIRONMENT SEDIMENT

Age (Ma) SETTING OF DEPOSITION CHARACTER
0
KEY

VOLCANIC ACITIVITY
PLIOCENE Active arc volcanism Volcaniclastic turbidites

RESURGENCE OF
UPLIFT Erosion or non deposition Crystal-rich volcaniclastics
AND
Subsidence Proximal volcanic rocks
5 EROSION
Super-eruption Siliciclastic sediments
Reefal limestones Basal conglomerates
Foraminiferal packstones Unconformity
10
CARBONATE ROCKS
SYNTHEM THREE

PLATFORMS AND
TURBIDITE FANS
EPICLASTIC

CARBONATE
REWORKING OF
EXTINCT VOLCANIC
VOLCANICS +
REWORKED

ARC AND
15 WIDESPREAD
CARBONATE
MIOCENE

DEPOSITION

Fig.11A
SEMILIR ERUPTION
20
EXPLOSIVE VOLCANISM

TERRESTRIAL-MARINE
VOLCANIC DEPOSITS

VOLCANIC ISLANDS
SYNTHEM TWO

IN TERRESTRIAL-
SHALLOW MARINE-
OLIGO-MIOCENE

EXPLOSIVE SLOPE. SOME Fig.10

VOLUMINOUS EPICLASTIC
25 REWORKING.
VOLCANISM
DEPOSITION IN THE
OLIGOCENE

ARC, INTRA-ARC,
FORE-ARC AND
BACK-ARC.

30
EUSTATIC EVENT APPARENT GAP IN SECTION
NO EVIDENCE OF
DEFORMATION

Fig.7C
TERRESTRIAL-SHELF-BASIN

35
EARLY BASIN SEQUENCE

OPEN - DEEP
TRANSGRESSION

MARINE
EOCENE
SYNTHEM ONE

40 SLUMPING
VOLCANIC
ACTIVITY SHALLOW MARINE

Fig.7B
SUBSIDENCE DELTAIC
45
Fig.7A
NO VOLCANIC TERRESTRIAL
ACTIVITY

~30 m.y. time gap CRETACEOUS

CRETACEOUS

+ OLDER
BASEMENT

Figure6. Simplified stratigraphic column of the Southern Mountains Arc. The column shows the three synthems men-
tioned in the text and indicates the phases of arc development recorded by the sedimentary succession.
 spe436-10 page 

 Smyth et al.

A Basal part of Synthem One

Clay Silt Sst Cong
B Lower part of Synthem One
Clay Silt Sst Cong
C U pper
Clay
part of Synthem One
Silt Sst Cong
1.7 TO P

10 1.6

3
1.5

9
1.4
Lithology Logs A and B
Thickness (m)
Thickness (m)

Thickness (m)
Organic-rich muds
8 2 Quartz-rich sandstones
+ siltstones

1.2 Conglomerates
Lithology Logs C

Increasing volcani c material

7 Cryst al-rich
1.1 volcaniclastic sandstone
Tu ffaceous mudstones Figure7. Stratigraphic logs illustrating
2 + siltstones features of the type sections of Syn-
1m
Sediment ary structures them One. (A) Basal conglomerates
6
and sandstones of the Lukulo Member,
Ri p up clasts
0.9 Karangsambung Formation. (B) Quartz-
Parallel lamination rich sandstones and interbedded organ-
5 0.8
Cross lamination ic-rich muds of the middle Eocene Kali
Trough cross Songo Member, Nanggulan Formation.
lamination Volcanic components increase upsec-
Convolute lamination
0.7 tion. (C) Volcanogenic sandstones and
4
Channel s tuffaceous mudstones of the Jetis Mem-
0.6
Irregular erosive ber, Nanggulan Formation.
bed base
Planar sharp bed base
1
0.5 Conglomerate
3

0.4

2
0.3

0.2
1

0.1

0 0 0
BASAL TERRESTRIAL SANDST ONES + TERRESTRIAL - SHALLOW MARINE MARINE VOLCANOGENIC
CONGLOMERA TES SANDST ONE S + ORGANIC MUDST ONES SANDST ONE S + MUDST ONES
o, o
Loc. 7.5477 S, 109.6694 E Loc. 7.7323 S, 110.1972 E Loc. 7.7395 S, 110.1887 E

exposed onshore that contain no fresh volcanic material (Fig.9). and mudstones (Fig.8). The middle Eocene age of the lower
They are dominated by quartz grains and metamorphic and igne- part of the succession is based on palynomorphs in the coals
ous lithic clasts (Figs.8 and 9), including vein and metamorphic and organic-rich mudstones (Lelono, 2000), and the occurrence
quartz, chert, phyllite, schist, metasedimentary rock, and basalt. of Nummulites and Discocyclina higher in the section. The
The lithologies identified as clasts are typical of those exposed in lower part is at least 200m thick and is a noncalcareous unit of
the Cretaceous basement (described above) and are interpreted to well-bedded coals, conglomerates, quartz-rich sandstones, and
be the product of erosion and reworking of these basement rocks. organic-rich muds. The coals and conglomerates are restricted
The terrestrial conglomerates and sandstones lack palynomorphs to the lower 50m. The conglomerates are commonly channel-
and so cannot be directly dated, but they are overlain by a succes- ized, are ~1075cm thick, and contain a range of lithic clasts
sion of well-dated middle Eocene strata (Lelono, 2000). similar to those identified in the basal section directly overly-
The middle Eocene to lower Oligocene of the Southern ing the basement. The coals vary laterally in thickness from 5
Mountains Arc is represented by a transgressive succession, from to >50cm and have an average vitrinite reflectance of 0.4% Ro
base to top, of coals and conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones, (Smyth, 2005). For normal and high geothermal gradients typical
 spe436-10 page 

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 

A WEST EAST B
Foraminiferal packstone
30 750 Slump - schist and
foraminifer mixture
OLIGOCENE

Volcaniclastic sandstones
Conglomerate clast
Quartz-rich sandstones lithology types
Quartz
Basal Conglomerate Chert
Phyllite
35
Basalt
500
Metasediments

C D
40
EOCENE

250
Thickness (m)

45

Cretaceous and older basement lithologies

E F

Figure8. Field observations of Synthem One. (A) Sketch stratigraphy of the middle Eoceneearly Oligocene deposits. Volcanic material has
increased upsection from ca.42Ma. (B) Field photograph of the basal conglomerate. The pie chart shows the abundance of quartz and lithic
clasts. These conglomerates contain no acidic volcanic material. (C) Quartz-rich sandstones and coals from the lower part of Synthem One. (D)
Interbedded quartz-rich sandstones and organic-rich and tuffaceous mudstones, upsection from photo C. The sandstones contain a significant
percentage of volcanic quartz, plagioclase feldspar laths, and pyroclastic zircons. (E) Volcanogenic mudstone rich in planktonic foraminifers. (F)
Volcanogenic sandstones with abundant volcanic lithic fragments.

of arc regions this would imply very shallow burial depths of <1
or 2km (Madon et al., 1997; Watts, 1997).
Above this transgressive succession lie thinly laminated
quartz-rich sandstones and organic-rich mudstones that are at
least 150m thick. These sediments were deposited in a ter-
restrial setting with some marine incursions indicated by the
presence of calcareous zones rich in Nummulites and Discocy-
clina. In addition to the organic-rich mudstones there are sev-
eral gray mudstones, which are rich in smectite. The quartz-rich
sandstones contain metamorphic lithic clasts, like those of the
conglomerates, but also contain volcanic lithic clasts such as
pumice and andesite. In addition, a significant proportion of
the quartz has a volcanic origin (the identification of volcanic
quartz is discussed further below). At the base of the quartz-
rich sandstones the quartz is dominated by metamorphic grains,
but this content gradually decreases in its relative contribution
upsection, and at the top, volcanic quartz is dominant (Fig.9B).
The heavy mineral assemblage contains zircons that yielded
spot sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U-
Pb ages of 41.8 1.6 and 42.7 1.5Ma (Smyth, 2005). These
ages are the same as the biostratigraphically determined ages
for the host rocks, indicating that volcanic activity occurred
 spe436-10 page 10

10 Smyth et al.

A Basement
B TOP

80 20

60 40 Up-section
increase in volcanic
quartz within the
quartz-rich
sandstones of
40 60 Synthem One (Fig
7.B), accompanied
by a decrease in
metamorphic
quartz.
20 80

80 60 40 20 Other
Volcanic
sources

BOTTOM
Pre-Middle Eocene basal Late Eocene-Oligocene
conglomerates and sandstones volcaniclastic deposits
(Fig. 7A) (Fig. 7C)
Thin section analysis of quartz type %
Middle Eocene quartz-rich Up-section increase in volcanic Metamorphic Sedimentary
sandstones (Fig. 7B) material Volcanic Unknown
Plutonic

C D

Figure9. Petrographic details of Synthem One. Scale bars are 1mm. (A) Basement, volcanic, and other sources are de-
picted in a triangular diagram, showing the upsection trend identified in East Java, with a reduction in basement-derived
material and an increase in volcanic contribution. (B) Pie charts showing the quartz types identified within quartz-rich
sandstones of East Java; example from the Nanggulan Formation. Volcanic quartz increases upsection. (C) Photomi-
crograph of the basal sandstone, dominated by metamorphic quartz. (D) Volcaniclastic turbidite dominated by laths of
plagioclase feldspar.

as the sediments were deposited. Higher in the section, in the
sandstones, a number of Nummulites-rich zones mark the onset
of fully marine conditions.
Above the nummulitic units the sandstones become
increasingly arkosic and rich in fresh laths of plagioclase feld-
spar (Fig.9D), volcanic quartz, volcanic lithic fragments, elon-
gate volcanic zircons, and volcanic clays such as smectite and
zeolites (Fig.9A). These sandstones are interbedded with tuff-
aceous mudstones. Water depth is uncertain but is interpreted
to be deeper than that for the nummulitic zones. There are no
diagnostic sedimentary structures, but the sandstones contain
pelagic foraminifers.
Higher in the section the presence of volcaniclastic turbi-
dites indicates an increase in water depth. Some turbidites are

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 11
characterized by Bouma divisions A, C, and E, but more com-
monly C, D, and E. They are >150m thick, with individual
bed thicknesses ranging from 5 to 50cm. The turbidites have a
diverse planktonic foraminiferal assemblage (Fig.8E), includ-
ing Helicosphaera euphratis, H. reticulate, and H. wolcoxonii
(P. Lunt, 2002, personal commun.), which provides an age of
NP18 (36.836.2Ma) for the lower parts of the succession. The
turbidites extend into the lower Oligocene, based on biostratig-
raphy (P. Lunt, 2002, personal commun.). They are dominated
by volcanic debris (Fig.9) such as laths of plagioclase feldspar,
volcanic lithic clasts, and volcanogenic clays, and there are no
metamorphic lithic clasts within the coarser beds. The heavy
mineral assemblage is dominated by volcanic zircons, which
yielded a weighted mean SHRIMP U-Pb age from 17 grains of
41 1.4Ma, similar to the biostratigraphic age of the lower part
of the section, suggesting some reworking.
The upper boundary of Synthem One is an intra-Oligo-
cene unconformity, which is interpreted to be the result of sea
level change, as the sedimentary rocks directly above and below
the gap have similar bedding orientations with no indication of
deformation. This could be a local sea level change but could
also be a global change. Unconformities of this age that record a
global intra-Oligocene sea level fall are widely known, from the
Haq et al. (1987) curve (30Ma), the Marshall Paraconformity
(3229Ma) in the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand (Fulthorpe et
al., 1996), and the carbonates of Baldwin County, Alabama, USA
(Baum et al., 1994).
Within Synthem One the contribution of volcanic mate-
rial increases upsection as the proportion of basement-derived
material (metamorphic quartz, metamorphic lithic fragments,
and illite, chlorite, and serpentinite clays) decreases, and the
upper Eocene sedimentary rocks are almost entirely dominated
by volcanic debris (Fig.9A, B). The volcanic centers supplying
this material cannot be separately mapped owing to their limited
exposure, but they are interpreted to follow the same trend and
occupy the same positions as the volcanoes of the Oligocene
Miocene arc (see below).
Kendeng Basin
In the Kendeng Basin there are limited exposures, and Syn-
them One is not seen at the surface, but blocks of the older litholo-
gies have been brought to the surface by Pleistocene and modern
mud volcanoes. These blocks are terrestrial and are composed
of shallow marine sandstones and conglomerates (de Genevraye
and Samuel, 1972) similar in character to the middle Eocene sed-
imentary rocks in the Southern Mountains Arc.
Synthem Two: Growth and Catastrophic Termination of
Arc Volcanism
Southern Mountains Arc
The upper Oligocene to lower Miocene deposits of Synthem
Two are primary volcanic rocks and epiclastic rocks. These rocks
are exposed extensively throughout the Southern Mountains Arc
spe436-10 page 11
(Fig.4) and within the fold-thrust belt of the Kendeng Basin. The
oldest rocks of this synthem in the Southern Mountains Arc are
reworked bioclastic tuffaceous mudstones dated biostratigraphi-
cally as Oligocene, NP24 (27.330Ma; M. Fadel, 2002, personal
commun.).
Throughout the late Oligocene and early Miocene the vol-
canic activity in the Southern Mountains Arc was extensive,
explosive, and intermediate to acidic in composition. The depos-
its range from andesite to rhyolite, with an average SiO2 con-
tent of 67 wt% (Smyth, 2005), and include thick mantling tuffs
(Fig.10A), crystal-rich tuffs, block and ash flows, pumice-lithic
breccias, andesitic breccias (Fig.10B), silicic lava domes, and
lava flows. The OligoceneMiocene volcanic centers can be
mapped (Smyth, 2005) by the occurrence of vent proximal facies,
and at least 13 centers are presently exposed (Fig.2), which show
a similar spacing to the volcanoes of the present-day arc. The
thickness of the proximal volcanic deposits ranges from 250 to
>2000m.
Thick (>700m) successions of volcaniclastic sedimentary
rocks surround the volcanic centers. These reworked deposits are
commonly interbedded with beds of unreworked mantling tuffs
and volcanic breccias >1m in thickness. The reworked volcani-
clastic beds vary in thickness from 5 to >100cm and are crystal-
and volcanic lithic-rich sandstones and tuffaceous mudstones.
They commonly contain abundant fragments of charcoal, indi-
cating the presence of vegetated slopes on the terrestrial volcanic
centers. Both terrestrial and shallow marine deposits have been
identified; the latter do not contain abundant bioclastic mate-
rial but are weakly calcareous, and their upper bedding surfaces
are commonly intensely bioturbated with Cruziana-type facies
traces. There are slump folds and mass wasting deposits on the
flanks of the volcanic centers.
In the Southern Mountains Arc is a record of a major erup-
tion, the Semilir Eruption, toward the end of the period of arc
activity. Extensive deposits of this eruption are widespread to
the east of Yogyakarta (Fig.4). The Semilir and Nglanggran
Formations (Fig.10A, B) are the products of this event, and
they were deposited in a short period, possibly during one
eruptive phase between 21 and 19Ma (Smyth, 2005). Based on
measured sections, the combined thickness of the two forma-
tions varies between 250 and 1100m. They are well exposed
over an area of 800km2, and the total volume of volcanic mate-
rial is estimated to be at least 480km3. The Semilir Formation
(Fig.6) is a thick accumulation of dacitic air-fall, pyroclastic
surge and flow deposits produced by an explosive eruption.
Both terrestrial and shallow marine deposits have been identi-
fied, indicating that the erupted material entered the sea from
the flanks of the volcanic center. The Nglanggran Formation
(Fig.6) is a series of monomict andesitic volcanic breccias.
The individual beds are up to 10m thick, have flat bases and
tops, and can be mapped for tens of kilometers. The breccias
contain some blocks >3m across. They are interpreted as vent
proximal facies such as flow breccias or block-and-ashflow
deposits. These deposits mark the end of volcanism in the
 spe436-10 page 12

12 Smyth et al.

A B

C Basement

80 20

60 40
Quartz Type %
Vo lcanic Unknow n

40 60
SOUTHERN MOUNT AINS ARC
Kebobutak
Jaten
20 80

Vo lcani c 80 60 40 20 Other
Sources

Figure10. Details of Synthem Two. (A) Field photograph of thick, well-bedded ashes (bar is 1m). (B) Field photograph
of monomict andesitic breccia; the breccia clasts commonly exceed 1m in size (bar is 1m). (C) Basement, volcanic, and
other sources are depicted in a triangular diagram, showing a selection of formations from Synthem Two. These deposits
lack material of basement origin. (D) Pie chart showing the quartz types identified petrographically in a quartz-rich sand-
stone in the upper part of Synthem Two. The quartz is dominated by volcanic quartz; the image is a bipyramidal grain
from the Jaten Formation, Pacitan (bar is 1m).

Southern Mountains Arc. There is no significant break within
or between the Semilir and Nglanggran Formations, based on
zircon dating and biostratigraphic dating of the overlying for-
mations (Smyth, 2005).
A number of quartz-rich sandstones (Fig.10D) are in the
upper part of Synthem Two in the Southern Mountains Arc
(Smyth, 2005). Volcanic zircons from the sandstones form a
single population with ages that are the same as that of the
Semilir Formation (Smyth, 2005) and are contemporane-
ous with the Semilir Eruption. The quartz within these sand-
stones is entirely of volcanic origin (Fig.10D). Volcanic quartz
grains commonly appear clear and bright in thin section, have

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 13
nonundulose extinction, and are monocrystalline (Leeder,
1982). These features and other characteristics, including
well-developed crystal faces, bipyramidal shape, melt embay-
ments, and melt inclusions, can be used to distinguish volcanic
quartz from other types such as metamorphic, vein, plutonic,
and sedimentary quartz. Volcanic crystal-rich sandstones can
be produced by primary eruptive mechanisms and/or second-
ary epiclastic processes. The sandstones and other quartz-rich
volcaniclastic rocks in East Java previously were interpreted
as continental siliciclastic deposits (Harahap et al., 2003), and
it is for this reason that many of the acidic products of the
Southern Mountains Arc have been overlooked (as discussed
below). Here they are interpreted to have a volcanic origin and
to be largely the product of the Semilir Eruption with some
subsequent reworking.
Kendeng Basin
Synthem Two exposures in the Kendeng Basin are very lim-
ited, occurring only in a small thrust-bound sliver. They comprise
poorly lithified Globigerina-rich tuffaceous mudstones ranging
in age from late Oligocene to early Miocene (de Genevraye
and Samuel, 1972). The mudstones are at least 85m thick (de
Genevraye and Samuel, 1972) but have limited surface exposure.
The mudstones are volcanogenic and apparently lack continen-
tal terrigenous material. The volcanic material is fine grained,
reworked, and distal in character, very different from that identi-
fied within the arc at this time. The abundance of Globigerina
and other planktonic foraminifers is indicative of pelagic sedi-
mentation in an open marine setting at water depths of a few hun-
dred meters or more. Thick volcanogenic turbidites are reported
from wells in this area (P. Lunt, 2002, personal commun.), but no
descriptions of the stratigraphy or well log interpretations have
been published.
Edge of the Sunda Shelf
The offshore Eocene to Pliocene successions in the East Java
Sea that have been investigated during hydrocarbon exploration
are not reported to contain any volcanic material (e.g., Matthews
and Bransden, 1995). Field investigations during this study in
northeast Java have identified distal volcanic material on the
edge of the Sunda Shelf within carbonates, including thin tuff
layers, zones rich in smectite clays, and concentrations of volca-
nic quartz and zircons. This suggests that there may be more vol-
canic debris offshore than recognized up to now, and that some of
the clay layers may be fine air-fall ash deposits.
The stratigraphic record of Synthem Two within the South-
ern Mountains Arc and Kendeng Basin accounts for only vol-
canic and volcaniclastic rocks at this interval. There is no evi-
dence of input of material from basement or other sources. This
indicates that the volcanic arc was the only source of sediment
at this time. There are no significant exposures of carbonates
within Synthem Two in the Southern Mountains Arc or Kend-
eng Basin, but carbonates do occur farther to the north on the
edge of the Sunda Shelf.
spe436-10 page 13
Synthem Three: Reworking of the Southern Mountains Arc
Southern Mountains Arc
In the Southern Mountains, to the south of the Oligocene
Miocene volcanic centers, extensive calcareous volcanogenic
turbidites (Fig.11) occur with Bouma divisions A, C, D, and E.
The turbidites are at least 500m thick and have been dated within
nannofossil subzones NN2NN8 (Kadar, 1986) that correspond
to dates between 19 and 10Ma. Beds vary in thickness from 20
to 75cm, and upper bedding surfaces are commonly bioturbated
with traces of Cruziana facies. Flute casts indicate that the flow
direction was toward the southeast, and there are slump folds
with southeasterly vergence. Thin section examination shows
that volcanic crystals and lithic fragments are well rounded, and
there is no fresh or unreworked volcanic debris present. Dating of
zircons (see below) supports the field and petrographic evidence
that these are reworked volcaniclastic deposits, as the zircon ages
are similar to the age range of rocks in Synthem Two. Synthem
Three is therefore interpreted to be the product of reworking of
older arc rocks of Synthem Two rather than the product of con-
temporaneous volcanism.
Several tuff beds have been identified at the top of the tur-
bidite sequence in the Southern Mountains but are not the result
of volcanic activity in the Southern Mountains Arc. The tuffs are
distal air-fall deposits and yield zircons with ages between 12
and 10Ma (P.J. Hamilton, 2003, personal commun.). These tuffs
are the product of the modern Sunda Arc (Soeria-Atmadja et al.,
1994), and the ages mark the initiation of volcanic activity some
50km to the north of the Southern Mountains Arc.
In addition to the turbidites, there are the first widespread
carbonates in the Southern Mountains (Fig.11D). The carbon-
ates range in age from late early Miocene to middle Miocene
(Lokier, 2000; Smyth, 2005) and formed isolated reefs and exten-
sive carbonate platforms, which can be observed overstepping
the deposits of Synthem Two. The limestones are at least 200m
thick and are the source of the carbonate within the volcanogenic
turbidites.
Kendeng Basin
Volcanogenic sedimentary rocks identified in the Kendeng
Basin include channelized volcanic lithic conglomerates, crystal-
rich and volcanic lithic-rich sandstones, tuffaceous mudstones,
and Globigerina mudstones. A thickness of up to 400m of rocks
is exposed (Smyth, 2005), and hydrocarbon exploration shows
there is up to 3000m in the basin (de Genevraye and Samuel,
1972). The sandstones contain Bouma divisions B, C, and E and
are locally cut by the channelized conglomerates. These conglom-
erates can cut as much as 20cm into the underlying beds and are
up to 1m thick. Slump folds are common, and most verge toward
the northeast. Measurements of scours, grooves, channel struc-
tures, flutes, and slumping indicate that sediment was transported
from the south toward the north. The Globigerina mudstone is
similar in character to those of Synthem Two. A sample from
the top of the exposed section yielded a biostratigraphic age
 spe436-10 page 14

14 Smyth et al.

A Clay Silt Sand Loc. 7.8727oS B

F M C 110.5496oE

20
Thickness (m)

Bioturbation
Asymmetrical ripples
Parallel lamination
Convolute parallel
lamination
Breccia
C
Pebbles
15 Figure11. Stratigraphic details of Syn-
them Three. (A) Logged section typi-
cal of the volcanogenic turbidites of
Synthem Three, Sambipitu Formation.
Synthem Three

(B) Field photograph showing asym-

metrical ripples on the upper bedding
surfaces of the volcanogenic turbidites,
Sambipitu Formation. (C) Field photo-
graph of volcanogenic turbidites within
10 the Kendeng Basin, Kerek Formation.
(D) Field photograph of the reefal car-
bonates typical of Synthem Three in the
Southern Mountains Arc, Campurdarat
Formation.

D
5

Upper part of
0 Synthem Two

of foraminifer subzones N8N9 (M. Fadel, 2003, personal com- in the East Java Sea (Bishop, 1980; van Bemmelen, 1949), and
mun.) corresponding to ages between 17.2 and 14.4Ma. redeposited on the edge of the Sunda Shelf.

Edge of the Sunda Shelf INTERPRETATION OF THE EOCENE TO MIOCENE

On the edge of the Sunda Shelf are a number of lower to mid-
dle Miocene quartz-rich sandstones. They were previously inter-
preted to have a continental provenance and to have been derived
from reworking of basement rocks of Sundaland (e.g., Ardhana,
1993; Sharaf et al., 2005), but new studies (Smyth et al., 2007)
have shown that these sandstones contain a significant proportion
of volcanic quartz, volcanic zircons, and reworked volcanogenic
clays. These volcanic particles are interpreted to have fallen as
ash onto the Sunda Shelf, to have been subsequently reworked
and mixed with material derived from uplifted basement blocks
STRATIGRAPHY
Initiation of the Southern Mountains Arc
The first evidence of arc volcanism in East Java is identified
as middle Eocene at ca.42Ma with the first occurrence of tuff
layers, volcanic lithic fragments, volcanic quartz, laths of plagio-
clase feldspar, and volcanic zircons. Prior to this, the sedimentary
rocks, which are the oldest rocks exposed on East Java, lack evi-
dence of contemporaneous arc volcanism and are the only rocks

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 15
exposed on East Java that contain no volcanic debris. This sug-
gests that there was no arc volcanism on Java prior to 42Ma,
which also implies no subduction of the Indian-Australian plate
beneath Java at this time.
Growth and Development of the Southern Mountains Arc
Following the initiation of volcanism in the Southern Moun-
tains the contribution of volcanic debris increased rapidly, and
the contribution of basement-derived material decreased. The
volcanic centers probably formed an east-west chain of volcanic
islands separated by interarc basins, much like the present Izu-
Bonin-Mariana and Aleutian Islands Arcs. A narrow volcaniclas-
tic shelf built up around the isolated volcanic islands, where thick
sequences of volcanic and epiclastic material were deposited. To
the north and directly behind the arc, the Kendeng Basin began
to subside, and material was transported from the volcaniclastic
shelf into the basin.
No reef carbonates are preserved within Synthem Two near
the arc, suggesting that environmental conditions, such as the
influx of volcanic detritus, prevented reef growth or, alternatively,
that these carbonates were not preserved or exposed. However,
some distance to the north, on the edge of the Sunda Shelf, a
large area of carbonate platform was developing at this time;
the shelf received volcanic debris as air fall, but much less than
that deposited close to the arc, and the volcanic material did not
substantially inhibit carbonate growth. Wilson and Lokier (2002)
showed that volcanic input can influence carbonate development
close to active arcs without killing carbonate-producing organ-
isms and causing carbonate deposition to cease.
During the Oligocene to early Miocene, volcanic activity
along the Southern Mountains Arc was at its most voluminous
and explosive. The volcaniclastic shelf close to the active volcanic
centers increased in width and thickness. Material was fed into the
Kendeng Basin, and only in the deepest part of the basin was there
pelagic sedimentation without a volcanogenic component.
Termination of Volcanism in the Southern Mountains Arc
Following a long period of arc activity between 42 and
18Ma, volcanism in the Southern Mountains Arc ceased. The
final stages of activity were marked by a phase of explosive vol-
canism, which included a major event, the Semilir Eruption. The
age range, thicknesses, area, and estimated volumes of volcanic
deposits in the vicinity of the Toba volcanic center (Chesner
and Rose, 1991) are similar to those of the Semilir center, and
the deposits of the Semilir Eruption may be distributed, like the
Youngest Toba Tuffs (Song et al., 2000), over large parts of SE
Asia. Work is in progress to assess their distribution.
Lull and Resurgence of Volcanic Activity
Following the termination of volcanism, there was wide-
spread erosion of the deposits of Synthem Two and extensive
spe436-10 page 15
reef growth. Volcanogenic turbidites built out as thick aprons
northward from the inactive arc into the Kendeng Basin. Sedi-
mentation was rapid and on an unstable northward-dipping slope,
and the deposits began to fill the accommodation space within
the basin. Material also traveled southward from the eroding arc
into the Java forearc. On fault-bounded highs or in the shelter of
the extinct volcanoes, reefs and carbonate platforms developed,
marking the first period of extensive carbonate growth within the
Southern Mountains during the middle Miocene (ca.2010Ma).
Arc volcanism resumed in the late Miocene, after a lull of
~8m.y., 50km to the north of the extinct Southern Mountains
Arc at the position of the modern Sunda Arc.
CHARACTER OF THE CRUST BENEATH THE
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS ARC
Little is known of the crust beneath many young arcs, espe-
cially in Indonesia, and East Java is no exception. However, study
of the stratigraphy of the Southern Mountains Arc has provided
some new and surprising insights into the character of the deep
crust beneath the arc.
As discussed above, exposures of basement rocks in East
Java are limited and are restricted to the west of the study area.
These rocks have been interpreted to be fragments of arc and
ophiolitic material accreted to the continental margin of Sunda-
land during the Late Cretaceous (Hamilton, 1979; Wakita, 2000).
It has been generally considered that these rocks are typical of the
basement beneath the whole of East Java. This is supported by oil
company drilling on land in East Java and farther to the north in
the East Java Sea, where deep wells penetrate a varied basement,
including basic and acidic volcanic rocks, slaty metasedimentary
rocks, quartzites, and cherts (e.g., Hamilton, 1979; Matthews and
Bransden, 1995). However, the abundance of acidic volcanism
in the Southern Mountains Arc and the dating of zircons indicate
that the crust beneath much of the southern part of East Java is
very different, and is much older.
Volcanism
The intermediate to acidic volcanic rocks of the Southern
Mountains Arc range in composition from andesite to rhyolite
(6077 wt% SiO2), with an estimated average SiO2 content of
67 wt%. In addition, many of the high-level intrusive bodies
exposed within the Southern Mountains Arc are granodiorites.
These rocks are considerably more evolved than the basic to
intermediate eruptive products of the present-day volcanoes. The
chemistry of the modern arc volcanic rocks in East Java (Hand-
ley, 2006; Nicholls et al., 1980; Wheller et al., 1987) indicates
that they are the products of relatively primitive subduction melts,
which reveal no significant interaction with underlying crust. The
difference in chemistry of the products of the Southern Moun-
tains Arc and the Sunda Arc could be explained in a number of
ways: fractional crystallization of more basic magma, interaction
of more basic magma with felsic crust, and partial melting of

16 Smyth et al.
felsic crust. Evidence from zircons (discussed below) suggests
that involvement of continental basement in petrogenesis is the
most likely explanation.
Ancient Zircons
At the beginning of this study there were very few good dates
for volcanic rocks of the older arc on Java (50 analyses), and
all published ages were K-Ar dates (Ben-Avraham and Emery,
1973; Soeria-Atmadja et al., 1994). No acidic rocks had been
dated. During this study, zircons from 16 Cenozoic samples of
igneous (9), volcaniclastic (3), and sedimentary rocks (4) were
dated by the SHRIMP U-Pb method at Curtin University of Tech-
nology, Australia, using the methods described in Smyth et al.
(2005, 2007). More than 453 spot ages were measured, and 270
of these were Cretaceous and older.
Prior to SHRIMP dating, the expected age range of the zir-
con samples was Cenozoic to Cretaceous. This reflects the age of
arc activity known from Java, and a contribution from the Cre-
taceous arc and ophiolitic terranes interpreted to form the base-
ment of East Java. However, in addition to the expected ages, an
unexpected range of ArcheanCambrian grains was identified in
a large number of samples (Smyth, 2005, 2007). The samples
containing Cretaceous ages and those containing Cambrian and
older zircons occur in distinct areas of East Java.
Lithology and Zircon Age Range
The five intrusive and four extrusive igneous rocks analyzed
contain a range of Cambrian and older zircons (n = 155) but lack
Cretaceous zircons. In contrast, the three volcaniclastic rocks
analyzed yielded a significant number of Cretaceous zircons (n
= 42) but only one Cambrian or older zircon. The four quartz-
rich sandstones analyzed yielded varied zircon ages. All of these
sandstones contain Cretaceous grains (n = 33). Three sandstones
from the Southern Mountains and Kendeng Basin contain a range
of Cambrian and older grains (n = 22). One sandstone from the
edge of the Sunda Shelf contains a single JurassicTriassic grain
but no older grains.
Age Ranges and Spatial Distribution
The samples containing different zircon ages do have a clear
geographical pattern. The Archean grains are found only in rocks
of the Southern Mountains (Fig.12B), and the igneous rocks of
this area contain no Cretaceous zircons (Fig.12A). Cretaceous
zircons are found only in the north and west of East Java, and
these zircons have been identified only in sedimentary and vol-
caniclastic rocks. This is interpreted to indicate that the South-
ern Mountains are underlain by material providing Cambrian to
Archean zircons but no Cretaceous zircons. To the north and west
of the Southern Mountains the underlying rocks do not include
Cambrian to Archean material but do include Cretaceous mate-
rial. Figure12C shows the distribution of basement rocks inter-
preted from the zircon ages.
spe436-10 page 16
If all the zircon ages are grouped together, five age peaks
can be identified (Fig.13): a Cenozoic peak (542Ma) recording
volcanism in the Southern Mountains and Sunda Arcs, a Creta-
ceous peak (65135Ma) consistent with the interpreted age of
basement, a Cambrian to Neoproterozoic peak (5001000Ma), a
Mesoproterozoic to Paleoproterozoic peak (10002500Ma), and
an Archean peak (25003200Ma). The Cambrian and older ages
were not expected, based on knowledge of the regional geology.
Source of the Ancient Zircons
Sundaland, the continental core of SE Asia, is the closest
and most obvious source of the very old zircons (Figs.1 and 13).
Rocks that could have provided abundant old zircons include gran-
ites of SW Borneo (Hamilton, 1979), the Malay Peninsula (Liew
and Page, 1985), the Thai-Malay Tin Belt (Cobbing et al., 1986),
and Sumatra (Imtihanah, 2000; McCourt et al., 1996) (Fig.13).
However, in these areas there are no known Archean rocks, nor
is there any indication that they are underlain by Archean crust.
Geochemical and isotopic studies suggest a basement no older
than Proterozoic in areas of Sundaland, such as the Thai-Malay
peninsula, that have been studied (e.g., Liew and Page, 1985). The
closest area with extensive granites is the Schwaner Mountains of
SW Borneo. Paleogene sedimentary rocks of north Borneo contain
debris eroded mainly from the Schwaner granites and the Malay
Tin Belt, including detrital zircons (van Hattum et al., 2006). The
zircon populations are dominated by Cretaceous zircons with age
peaks different from those of East Java; there are abundant Perm-
ianTriassic zircons, rare in East Java; and Precambrian zircons
are mainly Paleoproterozoic with very rare Archean grains. The
differences in zircon ages rule out a Schwaner or Thai-Malay
provenance, and other granite sources in Sundaland are even more
distant and paleogeographically unlikely.
The largest and closest area of continental crust of Archean
age is Australia, which formed part of Gondwana until the Cre-
taceous. It has been suggested that small Gondwana continental
fragments collided with the east Sundaland margin in Sulawesi
during the Cretaceous (e.g., Wakita et al., 1996; van Leeuwen and
Muhardjo, 2005), although the source of the fragments was not
identified. There is evidence of Late JurassicEarly Cretaceous
rifting of continental fragments from the northwest and west Aus-
tralian margins (Mller et al., 2000) during continental breakup
preceding the separation of India from Gondwana. One of these
continental fragments could have collided with the Sundaland
margin. Bergman et al. (1996) speculated that there could be
old continental crust beneath west Sulawesi, on the basis of lead
isotopic compositions of Neogene plutonic rocks, which were
suggested to have had an Australian origin. Basement rocks in
western Australia are dated as Proterozoic and Archean. Detrital
zircons from young sediments of the Perth Basin, derived from
the erosion of western Australian basement, have been well stud-
ied and dated (Cawood and Nemchin, 2000; Pell et al., 1997;
Sircombe and Freeman, 1999). The zircon populations in Perth
 spe436-10 page 17

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 17

A 110oE 112oE Inherited population includes

Cretaceous zircons
NO Cretaceous zircons

7S
o

8oS

0 50 100

Kilometers

B 110 E
o
112 E
o

Inherited population contains

NO Archean zircons
Archean zircons

7oS
Figure12. Distribution of samples that
contained zircon populations of (A)
Cretaceous ages, and (B) Archean ages
(Smyth, 2005). (C) Interpreted character
of the basement terranes in East Java.
8oS

0 50 100

Kilometers

C 110 E
o
112 E
o

Edge of Sunda shelf: Nature of the basement

uncertain; potentially arc and ophiolitic fragments
accreted during the Cretaceous.

7S
o

CENTRAL JAVA:
Accreted
Cretaceous KENDENG BASIN: Nature of the basement
metamorphosed uncertain; potentially arc and ophiolitic
arc and ophiolitic fragments accreted during the Cretaceous
crust.

8S
o SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS ARC:
Underlain by a fragment of continental
crust of Gondwana origin

0 50 100
Kilometers

Basin sedimentary rocks are remarkably similar in age to those
of the Southern Mountains in East Java. Both areas yield zircons
with 42002500Ma ages (predominantly 32002500Ma) simi-
lar to the Archean Yilgarn and Pilbara Blocks, 20001600Ma
and 13001000Ma ages similar to the Paleoproterozoic and
Mesoproterozoic Capricorn and Albany-Fraser orogenic belts, and
800500Ma ages similar to the Neoproterozoic Pinjara orogenic
belt (Fig.14). A west Australian origin is a geographically simple
and plausible explanation for the Precambrian zircons of East
Java, but how did they become incorporated in igneous rocks?
 spe436-10 page 18

18 Smyth et al.

Malay
Peninsula
Sabah
Brunei CELEBES
SEA
Sarawak Malino Metamorphic
Complex
SUNDA Borneo
SHELF
Kalimantan

it
Stra
0

r
INDIAN Schwaner

assa
OCEAN Mountains

ins
Mounta s

Mak
Meratu
Sulawesi
Sumatra
JAVA
Su

rch
nd

West Java SEA aA

a

jn aw
Tre

Basin
u East Java
rim
nc h

Extent of continental Ka Sea Basin FLORES

crust of Sundaland SEA
(Hamilton, 1979) Java Bali Lombok
Granites of Sundaland
(Cobbing, 2005;
10S van Hattum, 2005)
Java Trench
100E 110E 120E

Figure13. Extent of area interpreted to be underlain by continental crust, and locations of granitic bodies that may have
been available for erosion during the Cenozoic. The NE-SWtrending Karimunjawa Arch, which was a significant topo-
graphic barrier throughout the Cenozoic, is also denoted.

Incorporation of Zircons into East Java Igneous Rocks
Zircons are highly refractory and are well known for sur-
viving repeated episodes of melting (e.g., Hanchar and Hoskin,
2003). Ancient zircons could have been introduced into Paleo-
gene magmas of the Southern Mountains Arc either by subduc-
tion of Gondwana-derived sediments or crust, or by passage of
magmas through a previously emplaced Gondwana-origin conti-
nental fragment at depth beneath the Southern Mountains.
Subduction of Gondwana Sediment
Sediment from western Australia deposited on the Indo-Aus-
tralian plate could have been carried north to the Java Trench as
Australia moved north. However, even today a fan similar in size
to the modern Bengal Fan would be required to bring material
from Australia to the site of subduction at the Java Trench, and
there is no evidence of a sediment supply and distribution system
like this in the past. The huge Bengal Fan is fed by erosion from
the Himalayas, but there is no evidence for a comparable orogenic
belt in Australia during Cenozoic times. During the early Ceno-
zoic, Australia lay much farther south of its current position (Hall,
2002), and there is little sedimentary cover today on the Indian-
Australian plate south of Java (Masson et al., 1990; Kopp, 2002)
in what would have been more proximal parts of such a fan.
It is unlikely that material could have been introduced
into the Java Trench by axial transport from the Himalayas
via the Bengal Fan, or from the Birds Head microcontinent,
New Guinea. If sediment was produced by the erosion of the
Himalayas, it would require transport via the Bengal Fan to the
Java Trench and total transport distances >4000km. Although
mud-rich material is considered to have reached northern
Sumatra in the distal parts of the Bengal Fan (Curray et al.,
2002), there were topographic barriers at the Investigator Frac-
ture Zone and the Ninety East Ridge, and even then a further
2000km of along-trench transport. Today there is no material
from the Bengal Fan reported in the Java Trench off the shore
of East Java (e.g., Masson et al., 1990) and no significant sedi-
ment cover on the Indian plate south of Java (Kopp, 2002). It
is equally unlikely that sediment from the Himalayan region
could have traveled southeastward from Indochina across Sun-
daland, bypassing numerous basins and associated structural
highs (Hall and Morley, 2004) to enter East Java. This would
require transport distances >3500km.
The basement rocks of the Birds Head microcontinent were
not available for erosion during most of the Cenozoic, and the
Birds Head was the site of deposition of thick marine carbon-
ates of the New Guinea limestones (Fraser et al., 1993; Pieters
et al., 1983). Even had the Birds Head been supplying large vol-
umes of sediment, along-trench transport distances >2000km
would have been required for material to enter the subduction
zone beneath Java. This is equivalent to material from southern
Mexico or northern Washington State entering the Allistos Arc
 spe436-10 page 19

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 19

40
CENOZOIC
VOLCANISM
Range of U-Pb SHRIMP zircon ages from the A
Southern Mountains Arc, East Java (Smyth,
2005). N = 453

35

30
Numbers of grains

CRETACEOUS
BASEMENT
25

20

15

10

0
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Figure14. Comparison of the U-Pb
PHANEROZOIC NEOPROT MESOPROT PALEOPROTEROZOIC ARCHEAN
SHRIMP ages of (A) East Java (Smyth,
2005), and (B) Western Australia (Bruguier
40 Range of U-Pb SHRIMP ages from placer B et al., 1999; Sircombe and Freeman, 1999).
deposits in Western Australia (Bruguier et al, 1999; Revised from Smyth et al. (2005).
Sircombe and Freeman, 1999) and some of the
probable source regions. N = 260
35

30 PINJARA ALBANY-FRASER CAPRICORN

YILGARN CRATON
OROGEN OROGEN OROGEN
500-800 Ma 1000-1300 Ma 1600-2000 Ma 2500-4200 Ma
Numbers of grains

25

20

15

10

500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

Age (Ma)

(Busby et al., 2006) of Baja California, or for northern Norway or
Alabama to have been sources for the Lough Nafooey Arc (Draut
and Clift, 2001) of the Irish Caledonides.
Subduction of a Gondwana Fragment
Subduction of continental crust is even less likely. Buoy-
ancy forces make subduction of continental crust difficult, and
even if these were overcome, the fragment would have been
required to supply material to the arc from the middle Eocene
to the early Miocene, a period of ~20m.y. The fragment of crust
either remained stationary beneath the Southern Mountains or
was 1500km in length, based on the present subduction rate of
75mm/year (McCaffrey, 1996), or on Cenozoic plate tectonic
reconstructions (Hall, 2002).

20 Smyth et al.
Accretion of a Gondwana Fragment
The most likely explanation is that continental crust was
already present beneath the Southern Mountains Arc when sub-
duction began in the middle Eocene. We suggest that this was a
western Australiarifted continental fragment that collided with
the margin of Sundaland during the Late Cretaceous and may
have terminated the Cretaceous phase of subduction. Subduction
was renewed in the middle Eocene, and Cenozoic melts were
contaminated by interaction with continental crust beneath the
Southern Mountains. The distribution of pre-Cenozoic zircons
indicates that north of the Southern Mountains there is no conti-
nental basement, and the deep crust is arc or ophiolitic, perhaps
representing material accreted during Cretaceous subduction or
underplated during collision. The continental fragment could
have been quite large and may be traceable into Sulawesi. Zircon
dating and geochemical evidence (van Leeuwen and Muhardjo,
2005) show that the Malino Metamorphic Complex of NW
Sulawesi (Fig.13) contains zircons with ages up to 3500Ma.
DISCUSSION
The stratigraphic record in East Java provides insights into
the nature of the deep crust beneath the arc, the history of Indian-
Australian plate subduction, and the contribution of the volcanic
arc to basin formation. It also poses some questions about the
continuity and location of volcanic activity, which have relevance
for other arcs.
Deep Character of the East Java Volcanic Arc
Little is known about the deep crust beneath the young arcs
of the Western Pacific and Indonesia. There have been few seis-
mic refraction studies and few xenolith studies, and the deep crust
is almost invariably covered by younger volcanic and sedimen-
tary rocks. In East Java the old zircons in the Eocene to Miocene
arc products provide evidence of the character of the deep crust.
The insight gained was completely unexpected. When this study
began, it was thought that the entire region was underlain by Cre-
taceous arc and ophiolitic fragments, as suggested by Hamilton
(1979). The distribution of ages shows that north of the South-
ern Mountains there is indeed crust of this character, as indicated
by the small exposures of basement, but beneath the Southern
Mountains themselves there is a fragment of continental crust of
Gondwana character and western Australian origin.
The presence of a continental fragment beneath the arc
accounts for the unusually acidic character of arc volcanism in
the Eocene to early Miocene arc. The acidic products of this arc
have been overlooked partly because the resistant Old Andes-
ites are topographically so much more obvious, although acidic
volcanic and minor intrusive rocks are well exposed in many parts
of the Southern Mountains. However, the main reason why the
acidic products of the Eocene to early Miocene arc were missed
by earlier studies is because they were erupted explosively and
dispersed as volcanic ash, the ash was reworked into sediments,
spe436-10 page 20
and the processes of eruption and tropical weathering combined
to remove the unstable volcanic constituents, leaving well-sorted
quartz-rich sandstones. These were previously interpreted as hav-
ing been eroded from a continental Sundaland source, but careful
examination of the sandstones reveals abundant evidence of their
volcanic origin on the basis of textures, light mineral constitu-
ents, quartz character, clay mineralogy, and zircon character and
ages (Smyth, 2005).
Age of Subduction
The character of the oldest parts of the East Java stratigraphic
successions indicates that Cenozoic volcanic activity began in the
middle Eocene (ca.45Ma). There is little evidence to support the
common assumption (e.g., Hall, 2002; Heine et al., 2004; Met-
calfe, 1996; Scotese et al., 1988) that subduction continued from
the Mesozoic into the Cenozoic without significant interruption.
The stratigraphy of East Java indicates that older subduction
probably terminated in the Late Cretaceous with the collision of
a continental fragment rifted from western Australia. We suggest
that the continental fragment extended from East Java to North
Sulawesi. Ophiolites were emplaced from Java to North Borneo
during this collision. The oldest sedimentary rocks above the
basement in East Java are of uncertain age but are middle Eocene
or older and lack volcanic debris. There is little evidence for lat-
est Cretaceous to early Eocene volcanic activity in most of the
Sundaland margin between Sumatra and Sulawesi. Subduction
resumed in the middle Eocene when Australia began to move
northward rapidly after 45Ma (Hall, 2002; Mller et al., 2000;
Schellart et al., 2006), and has continued to the present day.
Formation of the Kendeng Basin
When volcanic activity resumed in the middle Eocene a basin
began to form directly north of the arc. Most of the investigations
of sedimentary basins on land in East Java and in the East Java
Sea (Fig.1) have been carried out as part of hydrocarbon explora-
tion activity, and little attention has been given to areas close to
the modern arc. The Sunda Shelf basins are typically >100km
from the arc and are characterized by many features typical of
fault-controlled basins; explanations for their origin have there-
fore interpreted them as types of backarc basins resulting from
subduction rollback, rift and thermal sag, or strike-slip faulting
(e.g., Hamilton, 1979; Matthews and Bransden, 1995).
The Kendeng Basin is not a typical backarc basin. Backarc
basins (Taylor and Karner, 1983) may form by trench rollback,
causing generation of oceanic crust (Dewey, 1980; Karig, 1971),
rifting of continental crust (Kobayashi, 1985), gravitational col-
lapse in the wake of arc-continent collision (Clift et al., 2003),
or by the trapping of old oceanic crust behind an arc (Scholl et
al., 1986). Retroarc basins (Dickinson, 1974) form as compres-
sive foreland basins behind a volcanic arc. Busby and Ingersoll
(1995) defined backarc basins as oceanic basins behind intraoce-
anic magmatic arcs, and continental basins behind continental

Cenozoic volcanic arc history of East Java, Indonesia 21
margin arcs that lack foreland fold and thrust belts. Marsaglia
(1995) identified similar categories of backarc basins with the
addition of boundary basins resulting from extension along plate
boundaries with translational components. Busby and Ingersoll
(1995) claim that the Sunda Shelf basins of Indonesia are non-
extensional backarc basins formed in a neutral strain regime,
although the basis for this assertion is not clear, because there is
abundant evidence for rifting of many of these basins (e.g., Cole
and Crittenden, 1997; Hall and Morley, 2004).
There is no evidence for either newly formed oceanic crust
under the Kendeng Basin or for strike-slip faulting. The basin is
much closer to the arc than other backarc basins and most of the
backarc basins of the Sunda Shelf. The late Cenozoic deforma-
tion in the region led to ~1030km of contraction at the outer
edge of the basin, so throughout the early Cenozoic this basin was
very close to the arc. There was extension in the Sunda Shelf from
the Eocene, but nowhere was oceanic crust formed. The Kend-
eng Basin is an asymmetrical depression, the deepest part of the
basin lies directly behind the arc, and the Eocene to lower Mio-
cene volcanic and sedimentary sequence thins toward the edge of
the Sunda Shelf (Waltham et al., this volume). The basin fill was
derived mainly from the Southern Mountains Arc on the south
side of the basin. The basin began to form at the same time as
arc activity began, and its subsidence history is closely linked to
activity in the volcanic arc. There are no seismic lines crossing the
basin, and it is not well exposed at the surface, so we cannot assess
the role of faulting in the basin development, but it does not have
the typical synrift-postrift stratigraphy of many other Sunda Shelf
basins. There is no evidence of compressional loading having
contributed to basin formation. Thrusting in East Java occurred in
the late Neogene long after the Kendeng Basin had formed. The
close relationship between volcanic activity and basin subsidence
suggests that the two are linked, and we suggest that the load of
the volcanic arc was the major cause of basin subsidence. The
contribution of volcanic arc loading to basin formation in Indone-
sia is discussed in greater detail by Waltham et al. (this volume).
Movement of the Volcanic Arc
Activity in the Southern Mountains Arc terminated during
the early Miocene (ca.20Ma). After a period with little mag-
matism, a new episode of arc volcanism began in East Java at
ca.1210Ma in a new location. The Miocene to Holocene arc is test different hypotheses. Comparison of arc development to the
parallel to the Southern Mountains Arc but ~50km north of it. A
significant reduction in volcanic activity in the middle Miocene
is a well-known feature of the Sunda Arc from Java eastward,
although subduction was continuous during this period (Hall,
2002). Vigorous volcanic activity resumed at the end of the mid-
dle Miocene in the Sunda and Banda Arcs at ca.10Ma (Hall,
2002; Macpherson and Hall, 2002).
Macpherson and Hall (1999, 2002) suggest that the decline in
volcanic activity resulted from northward advance of the subduc-
tion hinge. Hinge advance prevented replenishment of the mantle
wedge by fertile mantle, and consequently subduction-induced
spe436-10 page 21
melting was inhibited as the wedge became depleted. The cause
of hinge advance was the result of the collision of Australia with
eastern Indonesia, and the counterclockwise rotation of the Bor-
neo-Java region this collision induced (Hall, 2002). Arc volcanism
resumed when hinge advance ceased and the mantle wedge was
replenished by fertile mantle (Macpherson and Hall, 2002).
Why the volcanic arc moved to its new position 50km north
of the Southern Mountains Arc is uncertain. There is evidence of
thrusting and contraction in Java in the late Neogene, but its tim-
ing is not precisely known; this is part of our current research. It
is possible that contraction was linked to large-scale arc dynam-
ics, such as coupling of the subduction and overriding slab. There
is evidence of an old consolidated accreted material in the Java
forearc that acts as a backstop to the active accretionary prism
(Kopp et al., 2001). This suggests two phases of forearc develop-
ment, and these may be linked to the two phases of arc volcanism
on land in East Java. It is also possible that when the subduction
hinge advanced and the mantle wedge was not being replenished,
one result was a rigid, stronger overriding lithospheric plate that
later failed when hinge advance ceased and weaker, warmer man-
tle replenished the wedge. Another control could have been the
nature of the crust beneath the arc. The zircon ages indicate that
there was a change in basement type north of the Southern Moun-
tains and that the boundary between continental and ophiolitic
crust at depth may have been a preexisting structural weakness
that influenced the position at which melts could rise when arc
activity resumed.
Other possibilities for explaining arc migration include sub-
duction erosion and a change in dip of the subducting slab. Sub-
duction erosion seems unlikely, as the width of the arc-trench gap
today is >300km, and because marine data support active accre-
tion at that time (e.g., Kopp et al., 2001). A change in subduction
angle cannot be ruled out, but it is notable that today the slab
dip has increased to a very high angle after the slab descended
to 100km, as seen in seismicity data (England et al., 2004). A
lower, not a higher, angle would be expected if the arc had moved
north owing to the change in dip of the slab.
The jump in position of the volcanic arc is a feature of other
Indonesian arcs (e.g., Halmahera Arc; Nichols and Hall, 1991)
and reflects the changing stresses at the plate boundary over time.
We prefer an explanation that links the change in position of the
arc to plate reorganization in the region. However, it is difficult to
east and west of East Java, from Bali eastward, and toward West
Java and Sumatra, might provide insights, but unfortunately even
less is known of arc history in these regions than in East Java.
This East Java study shows that our understanding of arc tec-
tonics is still incomplete and that studies of arc stratigraphy are
essential if our knowledge of arc dynamics is to be improved.
CONCLUSIONS
The case study of early Cenozoic arc volcanism in East Java
shows the importance of examining arc stratigraphy. Insights

22 Smyth et al.
have been gained into the eruptive history, formation of a deep
basin behind the arc, and the character of the deep crust.
The early Cenozoic stratigraphy of East Java provides
a record of a cycle of arc activity from initiation in the mid-
dle Eocene (ca.42Ma) to termination in the early Miocene
(ca.20Ma). The Kendeng Basin, directly behind the Southern
Mountains Arc, contains >6km of volcaniclastic and sedimen-
tary rocks. The basin is not a typical backarc basin, and its sub-
sidence history is linked to volcanic activity within the South-
ern Mountains Arc.
The final stage of volcanic activity in the Southern Moun-
tains Arc is marked by the Semilir Eruption (ca.20Ma), which
distributed ash over a wide area and may be comparable to the
Pleistocene eruption of Toba in Sumatra. Following this phase of
major eruptions, there was a lull in volcanic activity during the
middle Miocene, followed by resumption in arc activity to the
north of the Southern Mountains Arc, along the axis of the mod-
ern Sunda Arc during the late Miocene. The mechanisms that
resulted in the decline in volcanism, and northward movement in
arc axis, are not yet understood and show that our understanding
of arcs is still incomplete.
The stratigraphic record of volcanic arcs can provide insights
into the character of the deep crust. The entire East Java region
was previously thought to be underlain by Cretaceous arc and
ophiolitic fragments, but Archean to Cambrian zircons within
acidic products of the Southern Mountains Arc point to the
occurrence of a continental crust of Gondwanan character and
western Australian origin beneath the old arc. This continental
fragment is thought to have collided with Sundaland during the
Cretaceous and is interpreted to have terminated the Cretaceous
phase of subduction. The extent of this fragment is not known
but may be traceable into Sulawesi. The use of inherited zircons
to determine the character of the deep crust may be applicable in
other arcs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project was funded by the SE Asia Research Group at
Royal Holloway University, supported by an oil company con-
sortium. Zircons were analyzed using the SHRIMP facility at
Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. Financial
assistance for SHRIMP dating was provided by the University
of London Central Research Fund and CSIRO, Australia. The
analyses were undertaken by Joseph Hamilton (CSIRO and
University of the West Indies) and Pete Kinny (Curtin Univer-
sity of Technology). We are grateful to LIPI (Lembaga Ilmu
Pengetahuan Indonesia) for field-work permissions. We wish to
thank Eko Budi Lelono, Peter Lunt, Theo van Leeuwen, Moyra
Wilson, Colin Macpherson, Heather Handley, Cindy Ebinger,
and Dave Waltham. Marcelle BouDagher-Fadel of University
College London provided biostratigraphic analyses. Peter Clift,
Jason Ali, and an anonymous reviewer are thanked for their
extensive reviews, which greatly improved this manuscript.
spe436-10 page 22
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Manuscript Accepted by the Society 24 April 2007
Printed in the USA