Abstract: Scientific Drill Results Bordering Southeast Asia

Philip Rabinowitz, Timothy J. G. Francis, Jack G. Baldauf, James F. Allan

During its Pacific phase of exploration, expeditions of the Ocean Drilling Program's (ODP) research vessel JOIDES Resolution collected core samples from beneath the deep sea floor bordering southeast Asia. These cruises were designed, among other important objectives, to provide important insight into the mechanisms and conditions under which accretionary prisms develop at active margins (e.g., Leg 131, Nankai Trough, where a complete section was drilled through accreted sediments, decollement, and subducted sediments into the ocean crust); to provide information on the origin and evolution of fore-arc terranes (e.g., Legs 125 and 126, Izu-Bonin and Mariana fore arcs, where processes and products of rifting and recycling of subducted lithosphere and evolution of mantle in these two sy tems were studied); and to investigate the origin and geologic history of a range of back-arc regions (e.g., Legs 124-128, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, Bonin region, and Japan Sea, where the age, stratigraphy, nature of basement, and state of crustal stress were examined). In addition, paleoceanographic objectives in the above regions documented variations in the rate of surface productivity; the origin of deep, intermediate, and surface water masses; and oceanographic responses to tectonic events.

The scientific highlights of the above important expeditions bordering southeast Asia, which have yielded crucial and otherwise unattainable data for addressing the above problems, will be presented.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90982©1994 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 21-24, 1994