Publications

Sinistral transcurrent faults form the boundary to the collision zone between the Pacific and Australian plates. Elements of oblique slip along the fault trend have created elongated, rapidly subsiding basins of limited lateral extent, filled with sediments of Miocene to Pliocene/Pleistocene age that can locally attain thicknesses in excess of 7000 m.Although the monotonous sand/shale sequence suggests a continuous deep marine envilonment over most of the area, one of the isolated blocks within the fault zone shows a more complicated depositional history. Here sedimentation alternated with erosion. In addition, sediments over this block have been strongly tectonized and the basement has been upthrusted. Ths so-called Rombebai Block is interpreted as a 'pop-up' feature caused by a compressional (dextral) offset of the main transcurrent fault zone.