Three geophysical surveys were carried out during the period from 1977 to 1981, as a German contribution to the SEATAR (Studies in East Asian Tectonics and Resources) program, in cooperation with CCOP-member countries and Australia. The surveys, using the R/V Valdivia and R/V Sonne, were in the Sulu Sea, the Makassar Straits, the Arafura Sea, Wharton Basin/Northwest Australia, and in the Coral Sea.

Diapiric structures in the northwest Sulu basin are probably of volcanic origin. In the North and South Makassar basin a sedimentary record exists which is more than 16,000 ft (5,000 m) thick and can be divided into five depositional sequences.

The subduction of continental crust from the Aru shelf/Arafura Sea, beneath the Aru Trough, is associated with intensive normal faulting of Pliocene to recent age.

In the Argo Abyssal Plain of northwestern Australia, a complex of dipping reflectors has been observed beneath basaltic sills and flows of Upper Jurassic age.

In the Coral Sea, the new information has significantly increased our knowledge of the change from continental to oceanic crust around the margins of the Coral Sea basins, and has implications for the development of rifted margin in general.

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