Plate boundary evolution in the Halmahera region,Indonesia

Halmahera is situated in eastern Indonesia at the southwest corner of the Philippine Sea Plate. Active arc-arc collision is in process in the Molucca Sea to the west of Halmahera. New stratigraphic observations from Halmahera link this island and the east Philippines and record the history of subduction of the Molucca Sea lithosphere. The Halmahera Basement Complex and the basement of east Mindanao were part of an arc and forearc of Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary age and have formed part of a single plate since the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene. There is no evidence that Halmahera formed part of an Oligo-Miocene arc but arc volcanism, associated with eastwards subduction of the Molucca Sea beneath Halmahera, began in the Pliocene and the Pliocene arc is built on a basement of the early Tertiary arc. Arc volcanism ceased briefly during the Pleistocene and the arc shifted westwards after an episode of deformation. The present active arc is built upon deformed rocks of the Pliocene arc. The combination of new stratigraphic information from the Halmahera islands and models of the present-day tectonic structure of the region deduced from seismic and other geophysical studies is used to constrain the tectonic evolution of the region since the Miocene. Diachronous collision at the western edge of the Philippine Sea Plate which began in Mindanao in the Late Miocene impeded the movement of the Philippine Sea Plate and further motion has been achieved by a combination of strike-slip motion along the Philippine Fault, subduction at the Philippine Trench and subduction of the Molucca Sea lithosphere beneath Halmahera.