Geophysical setting of the Sulu and Celebes Seas

Abstract

Leg 124 of the Ocean Drilling Program set out to determine the age, stratigraphy, state of stress, and paleoceanography of two of the basins, the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea, by directly sampling their sediment and underlying igneous crust to address questions related to their origin, tectonic evolution, paleoceanographic history, and the history of the tectonostratigraphic terranes adjacent to them. The scientific questions Leg 124 sought to answer were posed largely on the basis of a suite of geophysical observations from the Sulu and Celebes Seas. Thus, this study will discuss the regional geophysical observations to establish the context within which to interpret the Leg 124 drilling results. -from Author