Seram

Indonesia Offshore

West Irian Jaya Offshore

Taking a lot to this schematic tectonic sketch, it is quite easy to understand the Ceram trough between the Bird's Head platform and the Banda Sea plate. In fact, as said previously (Page 3A), the Ceram trough can be considered as the continuation of Timor trough with a small complication on the area of Kai Besar, where, as illustrated above, a micro-plate boundary, separated the Timor plate (in the southern area) from the Banda Sea plate, which contains part of Sulawesi Island, Ceram Island and Banda Islands. In plate tectonic terms, the A-B schematic geological cross section, illustrated on the next plate, summarizes the global geological setting of the area between the Banda Sea plate and the Pacific plate.

In terms of plate tectonics, on this Canvas autotrace of an old seismic line westward of the Bird's Head, the lithospheric plates defining the subduction zone associated with the Ceram trough are individualized without major difficulty. The uppermost seismic interval seems to be post orogenic, that is to say, postdating the collision between the Australian plate (Atlantic-type divergent margin) and the Banda landmass with the Australian, which is usually dated as the Late Miocene to Quaternary.