--> Abstract: Geology of Sarawak Deep Water and Its Surroundings, by M. I. Ismail, A. M. Mohamad, M. S. Ganesan, and S. A. Aziz; #90982 (1994).

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Abstract: Geology of Sarawak Deep Water and Its Surroundings

M. I. Ismail, A. M. Mohamad, M. S. Ganesan, S. A. Aziz

A geological and geophysical investigation based primarily on seismic data indicates that four tectonostratigraphic zonations are recognizable in the Sarawak deep water and its surroundings. Zone A is a 7-8-km-thick Tertiary sedimentary basin in Sarawak deep water characterized by north-south-trending buried hills, extensional fault-bounded features, and local occurrences of compressional structures, and is separated from the northwest Sabah platform (zone B) by a major north-south-trending basin margin fault. This margin fault is distinct from the northwest-southeast transform fault known as Baram-Tinjar Line. The northwest Sabah platform, an attenuated continental crust that underwent late Mesozoic-Tertiary crystal stretching and rifting, is characterized by northeast-southwest-tren ing rift systems and generally up to 4 km-thick sedimentary cover. The leading edge of the northwest Sabah platform that was subducted beneath the northwest Borneo crust is marked by the Sabah trough (zone C). The western Sarawak deep water is occupied by a 13-km-thick, north-south-trending basin, the west Luconia delta province (zone D), demonstrating post mid-Miocene deltaic growth faults and toe-thrusts. Crustal offsets of the South China Sea Basin, north-south-trending basin margin fault between zones A and B, and extensional and compressional structures in zone A are evidence for north-south-directed transform motions leading to the development of the Sarawak deep-water Tertiary basin.

Four main sedimentation phases describe the sedimentation history in Sarawak deep water and its surroundings. Oligocene-Miocene coastal plain sediments form the main hydrocarbon plays in the Sarawak deep water, and the numerous occurrences of amplitude anomalies clearly suggest a working hydrocarbon charge system.

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