Geoheritage of Pulau Balambangan, Kudat, Sabah

Abstract

The Balambangan Island, offshore Sabah offers outstanding scientific, aesthetic and cultural values that make the island very important in terms of geoheritage conservation. Despite its small size, the island has beautiful landscape and other geological elements that bear high ecotourism potential. The island has a wide spectrum of rock types and paleoenvironments. It has basalt deposited together with deep sea sediments and also shallow marine clastics as well as carbonates. The age of the rocks range from Cretaceous to Pliestocene. Since its emergence, the island has been carved by weathering and erosion into beautiful landscapes and morphologies. The elastic sediment at the southern tip of the island has been carved by wave into various shapes some of which resemble certain animals. Weathering and erosion on the Balambangan limestone member, on the other hand have produced unique karst morphology and landscape. The Balambangan Limestone hosts more than 20 caves with beautiful cave formations. The youngest Timohing Formation provides a good example of the recent products of geological processes and can be of high scientific value. In summary, the island has a very good potential for geotourism, edutourism and conservation.