About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Southeast Asia Petroleum Exploration Society (SEAPEX)

Abstract


Offshore South East Asia Conference, 1976
Pages 139-153

Stratigraphic Correlation in Indonesia

Harold G. Billman, M. E. Scrutton

Abstract

Early workers in Indonesia seldom made the distinction between lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic units and even today the literature indicates that many workers in the Indo-Pacific Province fail to make these distinctions.

A lithostratigraphic unit is a mappable subdivision of rocks distinguished solely on the basis of lithologic character. A biostratigraphic unit is a body of rocks characterized vertically and laterally by its fossil content only. A chronostratigraphic unit is a subdivision of rocks considered solely as the record of a specific interval of time.

Microfossil groups useful for correlation in the Indonesian Cenozoic, and for the distinction of biostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic units are the foraminifera, calcareous nannoplankton, and spores and pollen. The utility of each group is related to paleoecological factors.

Van der Vlerk and Umbgrove (1927) proposed the Indonesian Letter Classification to replace the European divisions of the Tertiary which were untenable in the Indonesian area as they were based largely on temperate faunas. The letter divisions are based on the ranges of various species of “larger” foraminifera and are not strictly chronostratigraphic units, but broad biostratigraphic zones applicable to shallow water environments associated with carbonate deposition. Recent advances in stratigraphic knowledge, radiometric age dating, paleomagnetic studies and planktonic microfossil ranges permit worldwide application of the classic European chronostratigraphic divisions of the Cenozoic. Much work must still be done in Indonesia to integrate deep-water planktonic microfossil zones with shallow-shelf benthonic foraminiferal zones and marginal marine to non-marine palynological zonations.

The Correlation Chart presented in this paper is a compilation from the literature and shows accepted age equivalents of different kinds of microfossil zonations applicable to Cenozoic Indo-Pacific Basins. These are related to the Radiometric Time-Scale and European Chronostratigraphic Units.


Pay-Per-View Purchase Options

The article is available through a document delivery service. Explain these Purchase Options.

Watermarked PDF Document: $14
Open PDF Document: $24