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A Middle Permian–Middle Triassic accretionary complex and a Late Triassic foredeep basin: Forerunners of an Indosinian (Late Triassic) thrust complex in the Thailand–Malaysia border area

2012; Elsevier BV; Volume: 76; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jseaes.2012.09.030

1878-5786

Michael F. Ridd,

Geological formations and processes

The Semanggol Formation of NW Peninsular Malaysia is a Middle Permian–Late Triassic sequence of predominantly radiolarian chert, sandstone and mudstone (including turbidites), and conglomerate. The belt of country occupied by this unit extends into Thailand where various names including Na Thawi formation have been applied to its correlatives. Fossil evidence, particularly radiolarian, has established its age but also revealed that it is tectonically complex, with numerous out-of-sequence slices interpreted here to be caused by thrusting. The model proposed here involves, initially, in the Middle Permian, accumulation in the oceanward part of an accretionary complex as Palaeotethys began subducting beneath Indochina/East Malaya. This regime, it is proposed, continued until about the end of the Middle Triassic when Sibumasu collided with Indochina/East Malaya bringing an end to subduction. But as crustal shortening continued into the Late Triassic a foredeep basin formed in front of the now-inactive subduction zone and accretionary complex, and the youngest part of the Semanggol Formation was deposited. During this final stage the whole package of rocks comprising those in the accretionary complex and those deposited in the foredeep basin underwent lateral compression resulting in a thrust complex. The Semanggol Formation and its Thailand correlatives occupy part of a N–S belt of imbricately-thrust, deeper-water, sediments which include slope-deposited Carboniferous and Lower Permian beds. That belt is interpreted as a series of thrust slices juxtaposing rocks of different ages, referred to here as the Songkhla–Semanggol terrane. Its western boundary is a N–S line of inferred thrusting which coincides with a major westward facies change to platform carbonates of Middle Permian to Late Triassic age, called here the Rattaphum–Kodiang tectonic line.