Late Tertiary to Quaternary tectonics of Irian Jaya.

Abstract

Between 1978 and 1982 a team of Australian and Indonesian geologists carried out a major mapping project in hitherto geologically unknown parts of Irian Jaya in westernmost Indonesia. This article describes the field techniques used and summarizes the scientific results, including the recognition of the Melanesian Orogeny, which began in the latest Miocene and continues today. This involves contemporary underthrusting of the Australian continent by the Pacific Plate, a process that is expressed on the surface by shale diapirism, mud volcanoes and active faulting. -Authors