Structure and Collision History of the Buton Continental
Fragment, Eastern Indonesia1
John Milsom,2 Jason Ali,3 and Sudarwono4
ABSTRACT
Although commonly reservoired within Tertiary
rocks, hydrocarbons in eastern Indonesia have gen-
erally been sourced from Mesozoic sediments
deposited on the continental margin of northern
Australasia. Fragments of this margin are now wide-
ly dispersed as allochthonous terranes throughout
the area, one of the most far traveled examples
being the island of Buton, southeast of Sulawesi.
Asphalt reserves on Buton support a significant
local industry and exploration continues for oil and
natural gas. In common with other prospective
Australian-derived terranes around the margins of
the Banda Sea, Buton is now separated from
Australia by the active plate boundary marked by
the Java Trench and the collision trace along the
Timor, Tanimbar, and Seram troughs. Buton differs
from these other terranes in its distance from that
boundary and its consequent insulation from the
effects of the PliocenePleistocene collision
between Australia and the Banda arcs. Recon-
struction of the geological history of the Buton ter-
rane thus has an important role in guiding future
exploration in the other Australasian fragments in
eastern Indonesia.
Geophysical studies of the Buton region have
used seismic ref lection, gravity, and magnetic
(including paleomagnetic) techniques. Seismic
reflection images generally record extension rather
than compression as dominating the recent history
of the area. Gravity data define the present-day
western limits of the Buton terrane and suggest
that in the east the terrane includes the almost
Copyright 1999. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All
rights reserved.
1 Manuscript received March 3, 1998; revised manuscript received
February 19, 1999; final acceptance March 3, 1999.
2Department of Geological Sciences, University College London, Gower
St., London, United Kingdom; e-mail: j.milsom@ucl.ac.uk
3Geology Department, University of Hong Kong.
4Geological Research and Development Centre, Bandung, Indonesia.
We are grateful to Eli Silver for permission to use seismic reflection data
obtained on the Mariana 9 cruise and also for a typically incisive review that
resulted in considerable improvements to the final paper, and to John Boast
of Union Texas (now with Anadarko) for many stimulating discussions. The
financial support of Conoco Indonesia for the gravity and paleomagnetic
fieldwork on which this paper is partly based is gratefully acknowledged.
1666
entirely submerged Tukang Besi platform. The grav-
ity surveys also demonstrate that the ophiolitic
rocks exposed on Buton are not attached to deep
roots, but are thin and isolated overthrust sheets.
Therefore they do not mark a terrane boundary and
their presence has little bearing on the prospectivi-
ty of the area. Paleomagnetic results document the
independent movements of thrust sheets on Buton
during the PliocenePleistocene.
The combined data from Buton record its separa-
tion from Australia as part of a microcontinental
block in the Jurassic or Late Triassic, followed by
collision with the Eurasian margin in southeastern
Sulawesi in the Oligocene or early Miocene.
Collision was followed by extension (as in Sulawesi
itself) producing minor separation of Tukang Besi
from Buton and much greater dispersion of other
fragments of the microcontinent, some of which
have since been incorporated in the new collision
zone in the Outer Banda arc. The oil seeps and
asphalt deposits of Buton are proof that hydrocar-
bons in the Banda arc fragments can be sourced
from within these fragments and are not necessarily
derived from the underthrusting Australian margin.
INTRODUCTION
Eastern Indonesia is notable for the presence of
numerous microcontinental fragments or terranes
that were rifted away from the Australasian conti-
nental margin during the Mesozoic (Pigram and
Panggabean, 1984). The known oil fields of the
area, with the probable exception of the Tomori
fields of eastern Sulawesi (Davies, 1990), are associ-
ated with these fragments and with the existing
margin in Irian Jaya, as are many of the oil seeps
and shows (Figure 1); however, many aspects of
the dispersion process, including the preseparation
positions of the various blocks, their exact times of
detachment, their movement histories, and the
natures and ages of their bounding structures,
remain poorly understood (Smith and Silver, 1991).
All these factors must have influenced the distribu-
tion of hydrocarbons, but in most cases they are diffi-
cult to evaluate because of widespread deformation
AAPG Bulletin, V. 83, No. 10 (October 1999), P. 16661689.
 Milsom et al.

Figure 1Map of eastern Indonesia showing the locations of oil fields and important hydrocarbon shows. Buton lies at approximately 123E and
between 5 and 6S. Bathymetric contours are at 1, 3, 5, and 7 km.
1667
1668 Buton Continental Fragment
associated with the PliocenePleistocene collision
between Australia and the Banda arc. Studies of
Buton island, which is situated off the southeastern
corner of Sulawesi (Figure 1), thus are especially
important because it has been shielded by the deep
marine South Banda Basin and the Banda outer and
volcanic arcs from the direct effects of this most
recent arc-continent collision. The island also has a
proven potential for hydrocarbon generation.
Asphalt deposits are mined at several places and oil
shows are common (Davidson, 1991). The asphalts
occur as impregnations of porous beds, as fracture
coatings, and as late stage bituminous dykes in both
Miocene and Pliocene formations, but the source
rocks are believed to be organic-rich Upper Triassic
sediments that contain Australian fauna and that
were deposited during the early stages of breakup
of the Australasian margin. These occurrences are
not merely interesting in their own right, but have
considerable bearing on the distribution of hydro-
carbons throughout eastern Indonesia.
The limits of the Buton terrane are uncertain. It
does not appear to extend into southeast Sulawesi,
where Mesozoic sediments, which may be of Asian
affinity, were metamorphosed prior to the Neogene
(Smith and Silver, 1991) and where other Mesozoic
sediments that are of suspected Australian origin
have been correlated with sediments in the Sula
Islands (Surono, 1998). To the west, Muna, which
is separated from Buton only by the narrow Buton
Straits, may be underlain by a southern extension
of the Sulawesi schist belt. The relationship
between Buton and the largely submerged Tukang
Besi platform to the east also is controversial.
Hamilton (1979) regarded eastern Buton and
Tukang Besi as a single microcontinental fragment
distinct from western Buton and Muna, but pre-
sented no evidence either for continuity between
Buton and Tukang Besi or for a terrane boundary
within Buton. A more obvious site for a concealed
suture lies between mountainous Buton and the
gently tilted Muna limestone plateau.
GEOLOGY
The Banda Sea
The Banda Sea (Figure 1) is partitioned by high-
standing ridges of continental material (Silver et al.,
1985) into oceanic north and south basins. These
basins may be underlain by trapped Indian Ocean
Mesozoic crust, which would be compatible with
their maximum depths of more than 5 km, but
interpretations of the variously oriented and widely
spaced magnetic profiles (Lapouille et al., 1986) are
ambiguous, with many prominent anomalies con-
fined to single lines. More recent evidence suggests
a Neogene age. Rhault et al. (1994b) reported late
Miocene dates for igneous rocks dredged from
depths of 3500 and 5500 m in the North Banda
Basin and failed to find any evidence for older
oceanic crust. Earthquake focal mechanisms indi-
cate that extension is now concentrated in the
extreme east of the Banda Sea (McCaffrey and
Abers, 1991), and the North Banda Basin is now
probably shrinking in area as it underthrusts the
eastern margin of Sulawesi along the Tolo thrust
(Silver et al., 1983b). The southern margin of the
North Banda Basin also has been interpreted as a
thrust (Hamilton, 1979), but recent observations of
this Hamilton fault, discussed in detail in a follow-
ing section, do not support this hypothesis.
Buton
Drawing in part on work by Fortuin et al. (1990)
and DeSmet and Hermanto (1991), Davidson
(1991) interpreted geological observations on
Buton as indicating final separation from Australia
in the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic, preceded by a
transition from prerift to synrift sedimentation in
the MiddleLate Triassic. According to Smith and
Silver (1991), the Triassic rocks (Winto Formation)
rest on pelitic phyllites and slates (Lakansai
Formation) which are exposed over an area of only
about 40 km 2 northeast of the island (Figure 2).
Both the Winto and the overlying Lower Jurassic
Ogena Formation consist dominantly of limestone,
but the Ogena appears to have been deposited in
deeper water. Clastic sediments, principally shales,
are common in the Winto of southern Buton. Both
formations contain abundant organic material,
which is generally considered to be the hydrocar-
bon source.
The uppermost Mesozoic on Buton is poorly
exposed. It begins with the deep-marine siliceous
and calcareous mudstones of the Upper Jurassic
Rumu Formation and continues with the Tobelo
Formation, which consists of pelagic limestones
with nodules and stringers of red chert. The Tobelo
was originally classified as entirely Upper Cre-
taceous, but has now been shown to extend from
the end of Rumu deposition up into the upper
Eocene or lower Oligocene (Smith and Silver,
1991). Interpreted erosional breaks (Figure 3) can
be assigned only a low degree of confidence
because of the scarcity and poor quality of outcrop.
Both the Rumu and the Tobelo were evidently laid
down very slowly, and their lithologies are consis-
tent with deposition during the drift of an isolated
continental fragment.
According to Davidson (1991), a hiatus at the
top of the Tobelo Formation can be attributed to a
collision with southeastern Sulawesi in the early

Figure 2Simplified geology of Buton; modified from
Smith and Silver (1991) and Sikumbang et al. (1995).
Miocene (N11), which led to shortening of about
60% and to the development of thin-skinned
thrusts and folds in southern Buton. Northern
Buton was not affected until the middle Miocene
(N12), when maximum regional compression led
to uplift and the establishment of an unconformity
representing a hiatus of approximately 3 m.y. An
ophiolitic complex exposed in southern Buton
(Kapantoreh complex, Figure 2) is generally
assumed to have been emplaced by thrusting dur-
ing the Miocene, but the vergence direction is not
clear from surface mapping. The sediments imme-
diately above the unconformity, i.e., at the base of
the coarse clastic upper MiocenePliocene Tondo
Formation, are mainly carbonate detritus, but ultra-
mafic and mafic fragments become dominant later,
indicating uplift of the ophiolites above sea level.
Tondo Formation deposition was brought to
an end by subsidence of Buton to bathyal depths
at approximately 5 Ma and deposition of the
Sampolakosa chalks and marls (Figure 2).
Subsequent uplift was accompanied by the devel-
opment of reefal carbonates of the Wapulaka
Milsom et al. 1669
Formation. Minor compressional effects can be
observed in upper Pliocene strata, and oblique
compression and associated strike-slip faulting may
continue to the present day. In the Buton Straits, en
echelon northeast-oriented, wrench-related anti-
clines within the fault-bounded Neogene sedimen-
tary basin suggest the presence of an active sinistral
transcurrent fault zone (Davidson, 1991). Quater-
nary uplift in southern Buton, where spectacular
flights of coral terraces rise to almost 500 m above
sea level, has been estimated at 2.5 km and was
attributed by Fortuin et al. (1990) to collision
between Buton and the Tukang Besi platform. The
northern part of the island, where uplift began ear-
lier, is now subsiding (Davidson, 1991) and rapid
sedimentation continues in Kulisusu Bay (Figure 2),
a broad and in places very deep embayment in the
east coast of Buton that is bordered to the north by
swampy lowlands.
Muna
Little can be said about the geology of Muna,
which consists of a monotonous limestone plateau
gently sloping up toward the southeast, where the
highest elevations are of a little over 400 m. Steep,
narrow ridges along much of the east coast may
mark the site of a former barrier reef complex. The
limestones generally are considered to be of
Quaternary age and have been correlated with the
Wapulaka Formation of Buton (Sikumbang et al.,
1995). Older rocks are exposed only at Tanjung
Batu (Rocky Point) in the western part of the island
(Figure 2), where a small outcrop of schist was
observed in the course of our gravity survey.
Although these rocks seem generally similar to the
widespread schists of eastern Sulawesi, it is also
possible that they are related to the Lakansai
Formation of northeast Buton.
Tukang Besi
The Tukang Besi platform lies immediately east
of southern Buton (Figure 1). Its limits can be
placed at the 2000 m bathymetric contour, which
encloses a considerable area of relatively shallow
sea floor and beyond which there are rapid increas-
es to oceanic depths to the north, east, and south.
Three subparallel, northwest-southeasttrending
ridges rise to sea level from a plateau at 12001500
m depth, each some 150200 km long and termi-
nating some 1020 km east of the eastern coast of
Buton. In this paper, we refer to these as, respec-
tively from northeast to southwest, the north
(Langkesi), central (Wangi Wangi), and south
(Karang Kaledupa) ridges. The contrast between
1670 Buton Continental Fragment
their orientations and the roughly north-south
alignment of Buton supports the widely held
assumption that the two blocks have been only
recently juxtaposed, but there are some northwest-
southeast trends on Buton (notably in the coastline
on the southern side of Kulisusu Bay), and this
direction is also strongly expressed in major faults
that cut across the southeastern arm of Sulawesi.
Sharing of a northwest-southeast trend direction
with southeastern Sulawesi seems unlikely to be
coincidental, but coincidence is implied by the sug-
gestion (Fortuin et al., 1990) of a Pliocene collision
between Tukang Besi and Buton.
No rocks other than Quaternary reef limestones
have been reported on the islands of the Tukang
Besi platform. The region has generally been avoid-
ed by research vessels because of the presence of
uncharted reefs and shoals, and has not attracted
significant commercial interest. The largest island,
Wangi Wangi on the central ridge, reaches a maxi-
mum height above sea level of about 270 m, and
three other large islands also rise above 200 m.
Quaternary uplift of the central ridge has thus been
comparable with uplift in southern Buton, but
extensive atoll development points to subsidence
of the southern ridge. The northern ridge, which is
capped by two small islands, seems to have been
the most stable of the three. Dredging on the steep
northeastern margin of the platform (the Hamilton
fault) recovered diabase dated at about 9 Ma and a
variety of sediments of late-middle Miocene and
late Miocene age (Silver et al., 1985). The 9 Ma age
is similar to that reported for the oldest basalts so far
recovered from the North Banda Basin (Rhault et
al., 1994a), which suggests a relationship between
diabase intrusion and the extensional episode that
formed this small ocean. Seismic lines from the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography Mariana 9
cruise, discussed in a following section, touched
only on the fringes of the platform, and recorded a
generally thin cover of young sediments and the
presence in places of a strong angular unconformi-
ty beneath which Paleogene or older sediments
were poorly resolved.
Sulawesi
Buton, Muna, and Tukang Besi together form a
southeastern extension of Sulawesi. A new per-
spective on the geology of this much larger island
has been provided by Bergman et al. (1996), whose
results are based principally on hydrocarbon explo-
ration in west-central Sulawesi. A key element in
their discussion was provided by analyses and dat-
ing of Miocene and Pliocene igneous rocks. K-Ar
dates range from 2 to 18 Ma, with a concentration
around 8 Ma, and the chemistries of many of the
younger samples were interpreted as indicating melt-
ing at the base of an extending, collision-thickened
and possibly delaminating lithosphere. These
observations were interpreted in terms of a history
dominated by an OligoceneMiocene collision
with continental fragments derived from the
Australian margin, as a consequence of which ophi-
olites were emplaced in east Sulawesi and eastern
west Sulawesi during the late Oligocene and early
Miocene (Parkinson, 1998). Collision was accompa-
nied by deposition of the thick and variable
Celebes molasse and was followed by orogenic col-
lapse, leading not only to the widespread volcan-
ism, but also to late MiocenePliocene thin-skinned
thrust faulting and perhaps to extension in Bone
Bay. The similarities with the history of molasse
(Tondo Formation) deposition and ophiolite
emplacement on Buton are obvious. The 5 Ma sub-
sidence of Buton seems much more likely to have
been due to extensional collapse of the entire
Sulawesi orogen, of which Buton formed a part,
than to choking of a subduction zone as suggested
by Davidson (1991).
The Banda Arc
The larger islands of the outer Banda arc (Timor,
Seram, and Buru; Figure 1) resemble Buton in pre-
serving geological records of Triassic positions at the
margin of the Australian continent, Jurassic rifting
from that margin, Cretaceous drift in an environ-
ment remote from, or shielded from, sources of clas-
tic sediments, and, with the possible exception of
Buru, middlelate Tertiary collision and orogenesis.
Seismic lines across the arc have provided striking
images of underthrusting by the thickly sedimented
Australian continental margin (e.g., Schlter and
Fritsch, 1985; Hughes et al., 1996) and suggest that
coherent slices of the sedimentary cover have in
some places been stripped from the downgoing slab
and been incorporated in the overlying collision
complexes. In the terminology developed by Carter
et al. (1976) and Barber (1978) to describe the geol-
ogy of Timor, the former Banda forearc constitutes
the allochthon and the continental shelf thrust slices
the parautochthon, the two having been formerly
separated by an oceanic basin. Both are now over-
lain by post-orogenic sediments of the autochthon,
deposited after the collision. The rocks identified as
allochthonous initially were thought to be of Asian
origin, but later work has shown that most, if not all,
were originally derived from Australasia (see discus-
sion in Charlton et al., 1991). In the context of this
revised interpretation, Buton is important because
the Triassic sediments testify to the presence of
Australasian elements at the Asian margin before the
Pliocene arc-continent collision.

Although much more has been published on the
geology of Timor than Seram, Seram provides in
many ways a better basis for a standard east
Indonesian stratigraphy. Recent deep drilling in the
vicinity of the small Bula oil field has supplemented
information obtained from surface mapping and
has allowed the age limits of the various formations
to be precisely established (Kemp and Mogg,
1992). The island was regarded by Audley-Charles
et al. (1979) as a geological mirror image of Timor,
but the division into allochthonous and parau-
tochthonous units was rendered unconvincing by
disagreement amongst these worker s as to
whether the key Nief beds, which span from the
Jurassic to the Oligocene, were to be assigned to
the allochthon or the parautochthon; moreover,
there were overlaps in the ages of rocks definitely
assigned to one or other of the two units only in
the Upper TriassicLower Jurassic, where the
Saman Saman Limestone and Wakuku beds were
considered parautochthonous and the Asinepe
Limestone allochthonous (Audley-Charles et al.,
1979). A different view was offered by Kemp and
Mogg (1992), who interpreted the deep-water
Saman Saman carbonates as overlain by and partly
interfingering with shallow-water limestones of the
Manusela Formation (equivalent to the Asinepe
Limestone, but continuing up into the latest Middle
Jurassic). In this scheme, the oldest unmetamor-
phosed sediments of Seram belong to the Middle
Upper Triassic, clastic-dominated, nearshore
Kanikeh Formation, which is roughly equivalent to
the Wakuku beds of Audley-Charles et al. (1979)
and which grades into the Saman Saman both
upward and laterally. If these gradational and con-
formable relationships have been correctly inter-
preted, then all the sediments of Seram can be fit
into a single stratigraphic sequence (Figure 3).
The Kanikeh Formation and the Saman Saman
Limestone are contemporaneous with, and also
strikingly similar to, the Winto and Ogena forma-
tions, respectively, of Buton, and only the Manusela
Formation appears to lack a direct Buton equiva-
lent. In view of the small area of Mesozoic outcrop
on Buton, there may be little significance in this
absence, or in the apparent different durations of
the Jurassic hiatus. The similarities between Buton
and Seram continue because the Late Jurassic Kola
shale of Seram resembles the Rumu Formation of
Buton and both are overlain by deep-water con-
densed sequences that extend from the Lower
Cretaceous into the Paleogene (Nief beds on Seram
and Tobelo Formation on Buton) and are dominat-
ed by foraminiferal limestones and marls with some
cherts. It may even be possible to correlate intrafor-
mational unconformities across the two sequences,
although the existence of some of the interpreted
Mesozoic breaks in the Nief beds has been questioned
Milsom et al. 1671
(Kemp and Mogg, 1992). In both the Nief and
Tobelo there is evidence for shallower water condi-
tions in the Paleogene and for the eventual termina-
tion of carbonate sedimentation by orogeny in the
Miocene.
The absence of an identifiable allochthon/
parautochthon division on Seram is surprising
because the seismic images from the Seram trough
(cf. Hamilton, 1979) are remarkably similar to those
from the Timor and Tanimbar troughs (Schlter and
Fritsch, 1985; Hughes et al., 1996) and clearly show
the Australian continental margin underthrusting
the arc. These images suggest both that there
should have originally been a subduction zone and
forearc complex in the Seram region (i.e., that
there should be an allochthon) and that parts of the
margin should have been incorporated into Seram
(i.e., that there should be a parautochthon). The
alternative interpretation offered by Kemp and
Mogg (1992), which does not involve oceanic sub-
duction, is hard to accept because there is, con-
trary to their assertion, a Benioff zone extending to
depths of several hundred kilometers beneath
Seram (cf. Richardson, 1993).
The paleogeographic problem is further com-
pounded by the presence of similar sediments and
metamorphics on Buru, immediately west of
Seram. The sediments include highly bituminous
Triassic source rocks that are abundantly present in
float in rivers in the northwest, and it seems that
this relatively little known island may well contain
the best exposures of the Banda arc Mesozoic sec-
tion. The similarities between Buru and Seram are
close enough to have persuaded many workers
(e.g., Hamilton, 1979) to regard Buru as forming a
single microcontinent with at least the western
part of Seram. The published 1:250,000 scale map
(Tjokrosapoetro et al., 1993) does not suggest that
the pre-Neogene rocks on Buru belong to a
parautochthon emplaced as a consequence of the
AustraliaBanda arc collision because thrust faults
are extremely rare; however, our gravity field obser-
vations made during a reconnaissance visit in late
1998 have cast some doubt on this interpretation
and indicate thrusting of at least some of the meta-
morphic rocks.
The Sula Spur
The Sula Islands, which lie immediately north of
the North Banda Basin and the northern limb of the
Banda arc (Figure 1), are widely believed to have
originated in the New Guinea region and to have
been transported to their present position by trans-
current movements along strands of the Sorong
fault system (Garrard et al., 1988). The leading edge
of this apparently coherent additional block of
 1672
Buton Continental Fragment

Figure 3Comparative stratigraphy of Buton and Seram. Stratigraphic column for Buton from Davidson (1991). The Seram column is based on
Kemp and Mogg (1992) and includes formations designated as allochthonous by Audley-Charles et al. (1979).

transported Australian crust, generally referred to
in its entirety as the Sula Spur, is thought to have
collided with eastern Sulawesi during the early
Pliocene (Davies, 1990). Davidson (1991), among
others, suggested correlations between the pre-
Tertiary rocks of the Sula Spur and those of Buton,
but these are not convincing. The Triassic in Sula is
dominated by acid volcanics that may be cogenetic
with PermianTriassic granites. Later Mesozoic sed-
iments were largely deposited in water less than
200 m deep, although conditions did become
bathyal during the Late Cretaceous (Garrard et al.,
1988). The most promising hydrocarbon source
rocks are the black anoxic shales of the Middle
JurassicLower Cretaceous Buya Forma (Garrard et
al., 1988) and are thus notably younger than the
bituminous sediments of Buton and Buru. The obvi-
ous correlations of Sula are with western Papua
New Guinea rather than with the Northwest shelf.
A Dispersed Microcontinent?
As has been discussed and as emphasized by
Fortuin et al. (1990), and within the limits imposed
by the reconnaissance nature of most of the map-
ping, the differences between the Mesozoic and
early Tertiary stratigraphies of Buton, Buru, and
Seram seem to be no greater than, for example,
those described by Davidson (1991) in the central
Banda Sea has revealed a similar succession of
igneous and metamorphic rocks (Silver et al.,
1985), Triassic sediments (Villeneuve et al., 1994),
and Miocene reefs (Cornee et al., 1998).
Uncertainties are obviously still considerable, but it
seems useful to introduce the concept of an
Australasia-derived Mesozoic microcontinent,
which included Buton, Buru, and Seram and possi-
bly also the Tukang Besi platform, some of the
Banda ridges, and elements of Timor and the other
islands of the Outer Banda arc, but was distinct
from the islands of the Sula Spur. We use the term
Bubuse (Buton-Buru-Seram) microcontinent to
denote this hypothetical and now extensively dis-
rupted block. We thus differ both from Kemp and
Mogg (1992), who considered that Mesozoic
Seram was separated from New Guinea only by
intracratonic rifts, and from Silver et al. (1985),
who suggested that many of our Bubuse fragments
were sequentially transferred from northern New
Guinea into the Banda Sea region along strike-slip
faults. We note that New Guinea origins for the
Buton and Banda arc hydrocarbon source rocks are
not supported by the stratigraphic review of west-
ern Irian Jaya prepared by Fraser et al. (1993), in
which source rocks were identified in the
CarboniferousPermian Aifam Group, the Jurassic,
and the MiocenePliocene. In contrast to Buton,
Milsom et al. 1673
Buru, and Seram, the Triassic sediments of Irian
Jaya were described as generally terrestrial and non-
fossiliferous, with poor to nil source rock potential.
The evidence for an original location of Bubuse
close to the Northwest shelf, at the moment, is far
from conclusive, and rifting of many of the now-
separate blocks from New Guinea would still be an
attractive hypothesis if the Banda Sea oceanic crust
could be shown to be Mesozoic or Paleogene, as
suggested by Lapouille et al. (1986). If, however,
the middle Miocene or later ages proposed by
Rhault et al. (1994b) are correct, then the Bubuse
fragments were closer to each other, and to
Sulawesi, prior to the middle Miocene, not farther
apart.
Hydrocarbon Implications
If the Bubuse concept is correct in general terms,
then the presence of asphalt deposits on Buton is
significant because it implies that Bubuse fragments
now incorporated in the Banda allochthon can
themselves be sources of hydrocarbons, just as the
oil and gas fields of the Australian shelf and Irian
Jaya are evidence that source rocks may be present
in the underthrusting continental margin (Brown,
1992). Hydrocarbons generated in either environ-
ment could have been reservoired in the Outer
Banda arc, but the ages of the source rocks, the
migration paths, the maturation histories, and the
trapping mechanisms are likely to have been very
different. A better understanding of Buton is thus
important to regional exploration and evaluation,
as well as to more local hydrocarbon search.
Additional information on both of these aspects is
provided by the results of the gravity, magnetic,
and seismic reflection surveys, which are reviewed
in the following section and which point to exten-
sion rather than compression in the recent history
of the area.
MARIANA 9 SEISMIC SURVEY
In 1979, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Mariana 9 cruise passed between Wowoni and
Buton, investigated Kulisusu Bay and the north-
western corner of the Tukang Besi platform, and
continued south via the deep-water channel
between the platform and Buton. Line locations
and vertically exaggerated bathymetric profiles are
shown in Figure 4. The profiles also have been
used to indicate the distribution of obvious sedi-
mentary reflectors recorded by the single-channel
seismic system. Because of the irregular track pat-
tern and the often large distances between adjacent
lines, the seismic images cannot be used to map
 1674
Buton Continental Fragment

Figure 4Locations of track lines and bathymetric profiles for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Mariana 9 cruise based on trackline
data stored on the GDAS CD-ROM distributed by the National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado. Thickened parts of lines 66 and 65
indicate the locations of the seismic sections of Figures 5 and 6, respectively. The bathymetric contours, at 1 km intervals, are taken from the
digital version of GEBCO sheet 5.10 compiled by Monahan et al. (1997). Bathymetric profiles are reproduced at approximately 5:1 vertical exag-
geration and show approximate locations of significant sedimentary layers as imaged by Mariana 9 seismic data.
 Milsom et al. 1675

the regional structure, but would be expected to at

least record the effects of any recent Tukang
Besi/Buton collision; however, evidence for com-
pressive deformation of young sediments is limited,
there is no consistent pattern of either folding or
thrusting, and extension seems to dominate in
many places.

Buton Trough and Hamilton Fault

Line 61 of the Mariana 9 cruise probed the

deepest part of the North Banda Basin, where
water depths exceed 6 km in the Buton trough.
The trough is the southernmost expression of a fea-
ture identified by Silver et al. (1983b) on the basis
of Mariana 9 data and named the Tolo thrust. On
line 61 several hundred meters of flat-lying sedi-
ments are ponded in two small basins in the deep-
est part of the trough. The top of the sediment
layer is some 100 m deeper in the basin nearer the
Sulawesi margin, and the seismic image is consis-
tent with subduction of north Banda Sea oceanic
crust beneath Sulawesi (Silver et al., 1983a, b).
Because there is no associated Benioff zone, it
seems that this process has either now ceased or is
in its very early stages. The trough is abruptly ter-
minated in the region where the Lawonopo fault of
southeastern Sulawesi links with the northeast mar-
gin of the Tukang Besi platform (the Hamilton
fault) via a deep-water embayment between Buton
and Wowoni.
There is a notable absence of any of the features
considered typical of subduction, or even of com-
pression, along the Hamilton fault. Where the fault
is crossed, approximately at right angles by lines 62
and 64, the basement surface merely flattens at the
base of the slope and becomes gently undulating
beneath thin sediments. Young sediments are
ponded at some places on the fault scarp, and on
line 63, which is subparallel to the crest of the
Tukang Besi central ridge in water depths of
500700 m, at least 1 km of stratified material is
present that is almost certainly older than the sedi- Figure 5Mariana 9 line 65 seismic section across the
ments of the slope basins. The limited penetration East Buton Basin in the northern part of Kulisusu Bay,
provided by the relatively weak seismic source did with line-drawing interpretation. The data quality does
not allow basement to be identified. not permit reliable correlation across faults and sedi-
ment layers are represented in the interpretation by
form lines only. Convex-upward objects in the center
Kulisusu Bay and at the ends of the section are diffraction patterns
produced by abrupt changes of slope in the sea floor or
discontinuities in subsurface reflectors. Time is two-way
If the Tukang Besi platform accreted to Buton in traveltime.
the post-Miocene, abundant evidence of this event
would be expected on lines 65 and 66, which cross
the supposed suture zone. At first sight, the seismic
data from line 65, showing sediments that have been the sea floor is arched up and rugged topography
strongly deformed, seem to be supporting the produces a complex of overlapping diffraction pat-
hypothesis. At the western end of the line (Figure 5) terns. Coherent reflectors can be traced for short
1676 Buton Continental Fragment

Figure 6Mariana 9 line 66, seismic section across the East Buton Basin, in the southern part of Kulisusu Bay, with
line-drawing interpretation. The data quality does not permit reliable correlation across faults and sediment layers
are represented in the interpretation by form lines only. The thin sediments indicated in the eastern part of the sec-
tion may be considerably older than the fill in the main basin. Time is two-way traveltime.

distances beneath the diffractions, but they appear to
have been both folded and faulted, and there is a
degree of asymmetry that could indicate a westerly
structural vergence. Sediments are only sparsely pres-
ent on the sea floor farther east and any compres-
sional effects there would thus be far less obvious.
The basin seen on line 65 extends onto line 66
and the western ends of the two lines are so close
together (Figure 4) that there can be no doubt that
the same feature is being imaged. The picture pre-
sented (Figure 6), however, is astonishingly differ-
ent. There may be sediment slumps from normal
fault scarps along the Buton margin and also com-
pressional effects due to sea floor gradients in the
most recent deposits, but the main body of sedi-
ments has scarcely been deformed. At the deepest
levels there is some folding of long wavelength and
low amplitude, but even this dies away in the
upper part of the section. The base of the sedi-
ments is not seen clearly, but diffraction patterns at
about 4.0 s TWT (two-way traveltime) may be com-
ing from the basement surface. If so, some
15002000 m of young sediments are present on
this cross section. Their age is uncertain, but the
East Buton Basin as a whole, of which this
depocenter is clearly a part, was considered by
Davidson (1991) to be PliocenePleistocene. There
may be equivalents of both the Sampolakosa
Formation and the Tondo molasse, as well as
younger deposits. Beneath these there may well be
folded and faulted pre-Miocene sediments because
these are important elements on Buton, which is
appearing as acoustic basement at the western end
of the line. Because high sedimentation rates are to

be expected so close to a rugged landmass subject
to high rainfall, the water depths, which are more
than 1500 m in places, are surprising and testify to
rapid subsidence.
As on line 65, the eastern half of line 66 shows
acoustic basement overlain by only a thin sedimen-
tary veneer of which details are obscured by a
strong source-pulse signature. The steep slope up
to the Tukang Besi platform occurs at the eastern
end of the line, and the small depression at its base
is the only feature that could be interpreted as
marking a thrust. Alternative interpretations seem
equally possible, and the remaining topography
seems to reflect extensional block faulting. The
sediments in Kulisusu Bay appear to have been
deposited in an extensional depression between
the Buton and Tukang Besi blocks, which must
have been already adjacent to each other when the
oldest visible sediments were deposited. The long
wavelengths and low amplitudes of the folds seem
inconsistent with the suggestion (Fortuin et al.,
1990) of a late Pliocene collision between Buton
and Tukang Besi leading to major uplift of Buton.
Given the data from line 66, it is virtually impossi-
ble to interpret the deformation on line 65, which
does not require more than a small amount of short-
ening, as indicating regional compression. If the
compression is merely local, then it could well have
been produced within a zone of transcurrent fault-
ing striking at a small angle to the line of section.
Because this fault, if it exists, does not cut line 66, its
orientation must be parallel or subparallel to the
Lawanopo and Hamilton faults and it could link to
faults that cross Buton at about 445S (Figure 2). A
further extension of this fault zone to the northwest
would pass just off the northern tip of Muna and
connect to faults mapped on the Sulawesi mainland.
The disturbances could have been produced by trans-
current faulting without transpression. An alterna-
tive explanation is that the sediments were affected
by diapirism due to overpressuring accompanying
rapid sedimentation. Diapiric activity is often local-
ized along transcurrent faults (Barber et al., 1986).
Tukang Besi
Because they avoided the shallow-water areas
along its crest, the Mariana 9 lines provide little
information on the sedimentar y cover of the
Tukang Besi platform. As noted, small slope basins
containing at most about 500 m (0.5 s TWT) of sed-
iments can be identified in a number of places and
are presumably late Neogene features, and deeper
reflectors can occasionally be seen, as on line 63
(Figure 4). There is nothing in the seismic data to
either prove or disprove the hypothesis of geologi-
cal similarity between the platform and Buton.
Milsom et al. 1677
MAGNETICS
Magnetic Anomalies
The results of a commercial aeromagnetic survey
that covered Buton, Muna, and the immediately sur-
rounding marine areas, but not the Tukang Besi
platform, have been widely circulated, although
they have not been formally published. The most
important aspects of the information provided are
summarized in Figure 7. Magnetic maps tend to
emphasize shallow sources (because of the inverse
cube law decrease in the intensity of dipole fields)
and in southern Buton the principal effects are
those due to the shallow ophiolite. An area of
strong, short-wavelength magnetic anomalies coin-
cides with the known outcrop of the Kapantoreh
complex and appears to continue, with a disconti-
nuity in the Bungi River region, through the area of
strongly elevated reef limestones and offshore for
an unknown distance to the southeast. Two rather
similar short-wavelength anomalies occur in north-
ern Buton but do not directly correlate with the
small mapped occurrences of ophiolite in that area.
A broad magnetic high that extends over much of
central Buton and contrasts with the magnetically
quiet Kulisusu Bay region to the east could be a
topographic effect.
Central Muna is characterized by low levels of
magnetic activity, which, bearing in mind the out-
crop information from Tanjung Batu, can be
assumed to be characteristic of the schist belt. The
magnetically quiet region is bounded to the south
by a narrow, east-westtrending low at approxi-
mately 520S. The gravity results (discussed in fol-
lowing paragraphs) suggest that this region marks
an important geological boundary. Northeastern
Muna also appears to be underlain by different
rocks, possibly ophiolites, that produce a complex
pattern of short-wavelength magnetic variation.
There is a small area of overlap between the
aeromagnetic survey and the area where magnetic
readings were obtained along Mariana 9 lines.
Both data sets testify to the presence of a relative-
ly strong (250 nt peak-to-trough) dipolar anomaly
off southeastern Buton, but this feature seems to
be confined to the channel between Buton and
the Tukang Besi platform. Short-wavelength dis-
turbances are not seen on any magnetic profiles
from Mariana 9 lines in the shallow-water
regions of the platform itself, which is compatible
with the underlying crust being continental, but
not with the widespread presence of diabases sim-
ilar to those reported by Silver et al. (1985) in
dredge hauls from the northern margin of the plat-
form. Increased levels of magnetic activity are
obser ved along this margin and in the North
Banda Basin.
1678 Buton Continental Fragment
Figure 7Summary results of aeromagnetic surveys and
paleomagnetic sampling. Rectangles indicate the axis of
the main linear negative aeromagnetic anomaly and the
dashed line marks the southern boundary of the North
Muna magnetic province. The area occupied by short-
wavelength magnetic anomalies thought to be associat-
ed with the Kapantoreh ultrabasic complex is marked in
black. Arrows indicate paleomagnetic pole directions at
localities comprising several separate, but closely spaced,
sites. S = sampling in the Sampolakosa Formation, T =
sampling in the Tondo Formation. Additional details on
sampling techniques, analytical methods, and statistical
reliability have been given by Ali et al. (1996).
Paleomagnetic Survey
Differences in the structural trends in northern and
southern Buton were interpreted by Davidson (1991)
as indicating relative rotation of some 45 between the
two blocks, and it is clearly of direct interest to hydro-
carbon exploration on Buton to determine if and
when this occurred. The question also has regional
significance because Fortuin et al. (1990) believed
there to have been rotation as a consequence of
Pliocene collision between Buton and the Tukang Besi
platform. A paleomagnetic study in 1991 (Ali et al.,
1996) was mainly intended to investigate this latter
hypothesis and sampling thus was confined to the clas-
tics of the middlelate Miocene Tondo Formation and
the carbonates of the MiocenePliocene Sampolakosa
Formation. Forty-one sites provided reliable data, and
all suggested negligible latitudinal change since the
late Miocene. It would, of course, require very rapid
movement to produce significant changes in dip in
this short period of time, but the observation is impor-
tant as providing additional evidence for the general
consistency of the determinations.
Large vertical-axis rotations were indicated in some
places on Buton, but there was no evidence for any
rotation at all at almost half of the sites, distributed
throughout the island (Figure 7). Rotations ranged
between 0 and 35clockwise on traverses less than 25 km
apart in southern Buton, rotations were negligible at
two sites in central Buton, and in north Buton large
clockwise and counterclockwise rotations of kilometer-
scale blocks were observed. These data are not con-
sistent with coherent rotation as a consequence of a
Pliocene collision between Buton and Tukang Besi,
but provide considerable support for the view
advanced by Davidson (1991) that the geology of
Buton can best be interpreted in terms of thin-skin
thrusting. If this thrusting were initiated before depo-
sition of the Tondo and Sampolakosa formations,
some of these sediments would have been laid down
on top of the thrust sheets, and subsequent uplift and
erosion would have isolated fragmentary klippen,
which could move and rotate independently. Rotation
and translation would have been dictated in part by
gravity glide forces that would have been variable in
both magnitude and direction. The likely presence of
shallow detachments and randomly oriented thrust
transportation are factors that must be taken into
account in any further exploration for hydrocarbons
on Buton.
Because of the youth of the formations sampled,
the paleomagnetic results have placed no constraints
on the hypothesis (Davidson, 1991) of relative rotation
between north and south Buton as a consequence of
middle Miocene collision between Buton and south-
eastern Sulawesi (including Muna). The variability in
results obtained from the post-middle Miocene sec-
tion, however, does suggest that any attempt to test
this hypothesis by paleomagnetic studies of the much
more intensively deformed older sediments would
require comprehensive sampling at a large number of
sites, and might even then not be successful.
GRAVITY
Gravity Data
Gravity data can clarify structural patterns at
many different scales, as is demonstrated by the
two different maps of Figures 8 and 9. At a basinal
 Milsom et al.

Figure 8Bouguer gravity map of the Banda Sea region; modified after Bowin et al. (1980). Contour interval 25 mGal. Vertical hachure indicates areas
underlain by oceanic crust where Bouguer gravity is in excess of +300 mGal. Horizontal hachure indicates areas of negative Bouguer gravity in Irian
Jaya and the Banda arc accretionary complex.
1679
1680 Buton Continental Fragment

Figure 9Gravity map of the Buton region showing satellite-derived free-air gravity in the Banda Sea and Bouguer
gravity elsewhere. Contour interval is 10 mGal. Lines AA and BB, segmented at 10 km intervals, show locations of
profiles modeled in Figures 10 and 11, respectively. Horizontal hachure shows the exploration fairways defined
by Davidson (1991) and identified by capital letters. T = Tiworo Basin, K = Kolono Basin, B = Buton Straits Basin, and
E = East Buton Basin. Black circles show the locations of onshore gravity stations.

scale, gravity contours can define the outlines and
general structural controls on individual depocen-
ters, although estimates of total sediment thickness
are subject to large errors because of uncertainties
in densities and in the extent and mechanisms of
isostatic compensation. On a slightly more regional
scale, gravity patterns can clarify relationships
between crustal and oceanic blocks at continental
margins.
Figure 8 is an updated version of the Bouguer
gravity map of Bowin et al. (1980), and offshore is
based on measurements by shipborne gravity
meters that have the advantage, as far as the
Bouguer correction is concerned, of being made at
the same time as the necessary measurements of
water depth. Sufficient information of this type has
been collected in the Banda Sea to produce ade-
quately reliable regional contours; however, the
contours in Figure 9 in the open waters east of
Buton are based on satellite altimetry (Sandwell
and Smith, 1995) and thus are of free-air anomaly,
emphasizing faults that control both sea-f loor

topography and sedimentary basins. There are
inescapable limitations on anomaly resolution in
using satellite measurements, but they nonetheless
now provide the most accurate available determi-
nations of gravity for most of the Banda Sea. The
derived values, however, are unreliable in narrow
seaways where tidal rips are common, and the con-
tours in the straits between Buton, Muna, and
Sulawesi have been extrapolated from onshore data
and thus are of Bouguer anomaly. Because both
Bouguer and free-air corrections are zero at sea
level, onshore Bouguer and offshore free-air con-
tours should join smoothly along coastlines, but
gradients are likely to be steep in these areas
because of the dominant effect of the rapidly
increasing thickness of the water column.
The land gravity stations shown in Figure 9 were
occupied in 1990 as part of the continuing pro-
gram of cooperation between the Indonesian
Geological Research and Development Centre
(GRDC) and the University of London. Almost 300
new gravity stations were established, but signifi-
cant gaps in coverage exist because strong south-
easterly winds made seaborne approaches to
exposed east-facing coasts hazardous. Gravity val-
ues were referenced to the IGSN71 standard via the
Indonesian base station at Ujung Pandang airport
(Adkins et al., 1978), and elevations were estimated
by direct reference to sea level at coastal sites and
by barometers inland, using a single base method.
Terrain corrections were not applied, except to
compensate for very local effects (as in the case of
a station read at the mouth of a small cave at sea
level at the base of a cliff on the east coast of
Muna), but few stations were in areas where inter-
mediate and far-zone corrections could amount to
more than half a milligal. The Bouguer gravity con-
tours at 10 mGal intervals thus differ little from
those that would have been drawn using fully ter-
rain corrected data.
Regional Gravity Field
The regional Bouguer gravity map (Figure 8),
because it includes a correction for the varying
depth of the large density change at the sea floor,
allows the effects of the smaller density contrasts
between different rock units to be appreciated.
The correction also produces a regional correla-
tion between high values and shallow Moho, and
the broad areas in which Bouguer gravity exceeds
+300 mGal testify to the presence of oceanic crust
in both the North Banda Basin and South Banda
Basin. Equally prominent are the continuous arcu-
ate low and accompanying strong gradients associ-
ated with the Outer Banda arc. The Bouguer map
emphasizes the differences that exist, despite the
Milsom et al. 1681
close stratigraphic similarities, between the present-
day structural settings of Buton and the islands of
the Outer Banda arc. Gravitationally, Buton forms a
part of the Sulawesi block and is isolated from the
outer arc gravity low by areas where Bouguer grav-
ity is generally in excess of +200 mGal. The thick
crust of the Banda ridges, between the Tukang
Besi platform and Seram, is indicated by signifi-
cantly lower Bouguer gravity.
Free-air gravity over the relatively flat and deep
sea floor of the North Banda Basin (northeastern
corner of Figure 9) is considerably higher, at +20
to +40 mGal, than the zero average expected of an
isostatically compensated ocean basin. The high
values are due to the long-wavelength background
defined by the GEM-T3 global gravity model (Lerch
et al., 1994) and produced by sources deep within
the mantle. Seismic tomography (Widiyantoro and
van der Hilst, 1996) indicates that much of this
extra mass is associated with deep subducted litho-
sphere, but it is also possible that some of this
extra mass is concentrated in a root of thickened
lithosphere formed during collision and now sink-
ing independently into the asthenosphere (cf.
Bergman et al., 1996). If detachment occurred
within the last few million years, as suggested by
the uplift of southern Buton, the sinking mass
would still be in a position to influence the gravity
field, even though it would no longer play a part in
the isostatic balance.
Free-air gravity is strongly negative over the
oceanic deeps north and south of the Tukang Besi
platform. Values below 80 mGal are reached in
the Buton trough east of Wowoni, where water
depths exceed 6 km and the crust is elastically
depressed along the line of the Tolo thrust.
Surprisingly, values are even lower southeast of
Buton, where the maximum water depth is little
more than 5 km. The most likely reason is that the
sea floor in this area is depressed below the level
appropriate to local isostatic equilibrium because
the lithosphere is providing a degree of elastic sup-
port for the Tukang Besi platform. High free-air
gravity over the platform contrasts strongly with
the surrounding lows. The north ridge retains its
separate identity, but the south and central ridges
form a single gravity high. Coastal (i.e., free-air and
Bouguer) gravity on Wangi Wangi, the only Tukang
Besi island with onshore gravity stations, is close
to +130 mGal, and gradients are low.
Elsewhere onshore, Bouguer values range from
a high of more than +150 mGal on the east coast
of Wowoni to lows of less than +30 mGal on
Sulawesi. The gradient from +150 to +100 mGal is
steep across Wowoni but gentler farther south.
Bouguer gravity contours in north and south Buton
generally are parallel or subparallel to the nearest
coastline.
1682 Buton Continental Fragment
Neogene Basins
Several late Neogene sedimentary basins were
identified as exploration fairways by Davidson
(1991), on the assumption that oil sourced in the
Triassic might be reservoired in upper Tertiary sed-
iments (principally Tondo Formation clastics). The
basins are shown in Figure 9 and generally are asso-
ciated with relative gravity lows, but these differ in
prominence. The gravity effects of the onshore
parts of the East Buton basin are distorted by a
regional gradient due to changes in crustal thick-
ness that accentuate local gradients at the eastern
edge of the basin and suppress them in the west.
Residual lows over the northern and southern
lobes of the basin would have maximum ampli-
tudes of 1020 mGal, consistent with sediments
with density contrasts of the order of 0.4 Mg/m3
reaching maximum thicknesses of 12 km in nar-
row, fault-bounded basins. Davidson (1991) also
interpreted a western lobe to the basin extending
roughly halfway across central Buton from Kulisusu
Bay, and our gravity data suggest that this continues
still farther west, linking with his Buton Straits
Basin and cutting across southern Muna. The
region of low gravity trends a few degrees north of
east and is defined by free-air contours in Kulisusu
Bay (where it coincides with the marine and sedi-
mentary basin shown in Figure 5) and by onshore
readings on Muna and along the west coast of
Buton. Because bad weather prevented access to
the western shore of Kulisusu Bay, it is not possible
to be absolutely certain of the continuity of the low
across central Buton, although the simplest option
is to draw the contours in this way. The separation
implied between the north and south Buton blocks
would have provided ample scope for the relative
rotations suggested by Davidson (1991), and any
such movements would have had a crucial influ-
ence on patterns of Neogene sedimentation and
hydrocarbon migration. The gravity pattern also
supports the existence of a basement high between
the Buton Straits Basin and the Kolono Basin of
southeast Sulawesi, and a greater extension of the
latter into the northern Buton Straits than previous-
ly suggested.
In the central western part of the area shown in
Figure 9, the Tiworo offshore basin may also be
associated with a 1020 mGal low, but the con-
tours, drawn by linking minor features on Muna
and Sulawesi, are poorly controlled.
Ophiolites
The main outcrop of the ophiolitic Kapantoreh
complex lies between the two traverses that cross
southern Buton. There are no gravity stations on
the outcrop, but several stations are within a few
hundred meters of it, and more than a dozen are
within 10 km. Bouguer gravity points to the exis-
tence of a residual anomaly over the ophiolite of
about +20 mGal, which is much less than would be
expected for a deeply rooted basic/ultrabasic thrust
sheet, but consistent with one riding on a shallow,
subhorizontal detachment. The overall pattern
resembles that in East Sulawesi, where extensive
ophiolites are associated with generally low gravity
fields, although on Sulawesi there are some local-
ized strong anomalies indicating local thickening
(Silver et al., 1983a). It seems that just as the Tondo
Formation is a close analog of the Sulawesi molasse,
the Kapantoreh ultrabasic complex is an analog or
extension of the East Sulawesi ophiolite. The
detached and thin thrust slices are now removed
from their areas of origin and do not mark the
boundary of the prospective area.
North Buton Gravity Model
Despite the inevitable ambiguities, quantitative
gravity modeling can provide important insights
into geological structure. Gravity variations can be
expected to provide information on terrane thick-
nesses and the natures of terrane boundaries that
are major controls on emergence and subsidence
and hence on sedimentary history. For the Buton
region, models were developed using the 2-D (two-
dimensional) (infinite strike-length) approach,
modified where necessary by the introduction of
strike limitation (Cady, 1980). The standard (conti-
nental) crust that produces zero gravity anomaly at
the surface was assumed to be 30 km thick and to
be 0.4 Mg/cm 3 less dense than the mantle at the
Moho. All modeling was carried out in terms of
density differences from this standard crust and
mantle.
The crustal structure of Buton itself was investi-
gated along a Bouguer and free-air gravity profile
running roughly northeast-southwest from central
Muna into the deepest part of the North Banda
Basin (line AA, Figure 9) (for the profile and
model, see Figure 10). Line direction was altered
slightly at the east coast of Buton to maintain rough
perpendicularity to the gravity contours, and both
the water layer and the shallow Moho were
assumed to terminate against standard crust 50 km
northwest of the line of section, at the coast of
Sulawesi. Gravity gradients are low at both ends of
the profile. The match with observation shown in
Figure 10 was obtained with a model using only a
water layer, crust, and mantle, and a single, low
(contrast 0.3 Mg/cm3) density for the sediments
of the East Buton and Buton Straits basins. The
actual basins, in which the deepest sediments

Figure 10North Buton combined Bouguer and free-air gravity profile and gravity model (see Figure 9 for profile
location). Density contrasts are given in the text.
would be expected to be compacted and of higher
density, may be considerably deeper than the 12
km deduced on the basis of gravity modeling.
When allowance is made for the regional field
(achieved in the models shown in Figures 10, 11 by
including a deep mass distribution, which pro-
duces uniform +20 mGal backgrounds along the
profiles), the thickness of the crust beneath Buton
is close to standard continental. The geology of the
island also is consistent with continental composi-
tion, but the estimate (Davidson, 1991) of 60%
crustal shortening along the thrust faults implies
that the crust was thinner prior to the middle
Tertiary orogeny. The most remarkable feature of
the model is the steep dip on the Moho at the
ocean/continent transition. The angle could be
reduced by introducing denser material into the
crust beneath the steep bathymetric slope, or by an
abrupt lateral increase in mantle density from
ocean to platform. Some possible reasons for intro-
ducing such modifications are considered in a fol-
lowing section.
Tukang Besi Gravity Model
Strike-limited modeling was also applied to a
northeast-southwest profile across the Tukang Besi
platform. Once again, a slight change in direction
was introduced near the Hamilton fault to ensure
that contours were intersected approximately at
right angles. The northeastern part of the line coin-
cides with Mariana 9 line 62, which provided
bathymetric control, but no gravity data. The line
Milsom et al. 1683
passes close to Wangi Wangi where coastal values of
about +130 mGal are compatible with the satellite-
derived free-air gravity. Modeling using only the
three main components of the North Buton model
(water, crust, and mantle) and a +20 mGal regional
background readily achieves a match with observa-
tion (Figure 11). As would be expected from the
almost complete submergence of the platform, the
Moho is on average shallower, by about 5 km, than
it would be beneath a normal continent; however,
its interpreted position differs from that predicted
by assuming perfect airy isostatic compensation,
the crust being thick beneath the deep-water
trough between the north and central ridges, and
too thin beneath the south and central ridges to
provide full isostatic support. The low free-air grav-
ity in the south, where the marine basin is of near-
normal oceanic depth, is only partly explained by
the deep water and the lateral gravitational effects
of nearby blocks of much thicker crust, and sug-
gests that the basin crust is depressed by adjacent
loads. Overall, the pattern can be explained by
rough regional isostatic balance, coupled with par-
tial elastic support by a strong lithosphere. This
remains true in all alternative models. Thick, light
sediments in the trough between the north and
central ridges could considerably reduce the need
for an underlying depression in the Moho, but not
(with geologically plausible parameters) to the
extent of producing a Moho rise to balance the sea-
floor depression. High-density material beneath the
central ridge also would reduce the need for a rise
in the mantle and produce a more regular Moho
profile. High-density intrusions might be expected
1684 Buton Continental Fragment
Figure 11Tukang Besi free-air gravity profile and gravity model (see Figure 9 for profile location). Location of iso-
static Moho is based on a standard crustal thickness of 30 km and an assumed density contrast of 0.4 Mg/m3 across
the Moho. The modeled Moho deviates considerably from its isostatic location, but the cross sectional areas (and
hence mass excesses and deficits) above and below this ideal line are roughly equal except in the extreme south-
west. Density contrasts are given in the text.
were the ridge a volcanic structure, but neither the
almost featureless Mariana 9 magnetic profiles nor
the gravity gradients of about 0.1 mGal/km onshore
Wangi Wangi suggests the presence of igneous
intrusions in the most obvious locations.
In Figure 11, the dip of the Moho beneath the
Hamilton fault is much less than it is in Figure 10.
This difference is largely a consequence of the loca-
tion of the profile, which runs within a few tens of
kilometers of the northwestern termination of the
northern ridge, where the crust would be expected
to be considerably thinner than beneath northern
Buton. Steeper free-air gradients reappear south-
east along the Hamilton fault and imply thicker
crust beneath the platform and steeper dips on the
Moho.
Gravity interpretations are notoriously ambigu-
ous, but the steepness of the gravity gradient does
drastically limit the possible interpretations of the
Hamilton fault, suggesting steep to vertical dip
rather than a thrust. The proposal (Hamilton, 1979)
that the fault marks the site of a former subduction
zone is thus hard to accept. Subduction faults typi-
cally have shallow dips close to the surface, and the
associated changes in gravity field, although of con-
siderable amplitude, usually involve only relatively
gentle gradients. Introducing into the model the
relatively low density accreted material that would
be expected at a subducting margin would further
increase the difficulties of matching calculation and
observation. A subduction model could be made to
fit if a lateral increase in mantle density, already
noted as possibly contributing to the steep gradi-
ent, occurred in the lower plate precisely beneath
the surface trace of the inclined fault bounding the
upper plate, but this demands an implausible
degree of coincidence. The alternative steep
Hamilton fault could be either transcurrent or nor-
mal, but although dense intrusions at an extension-
al margin could contribute to the steep gravity gra-
dient, the extreme linearity is more characteristic
of transcurrent movement. For the Hamilton fault
to be a continuation of the left-lateral Lawanopo
fault of Sulawesi is gravitationally acceptable, but
there is no region of oceanic crust of which the
North Banda Basin could plausibly form the offset
continuation. A solution compatible with all the data
is that the offshore fault functioned as a continent-
bounding transform against which the North Banda
Basin opened in the late Miocene. It is entirely pos-
sible that under such circumstances the mantle
would be denser to considerable depths on the
platform side, enhancing the gravity gradient and
requiring a less steeply dipping Moho and slightly
thinner Tukang Besi crust.
Structure of the Buton Terrane
Qualitative appraisals of the gravity maps and
quantitative modeling indicate that Buton overlies
a region of rapid change in crustal thickness, dis-
tinct from the regions of low gravity gradients in
the North Banda Basin and on northern and cen-
tral Muna and adjacent parts of Sulawesi.
Gravitationally, it seems that the northern two-
thirds of Muna are a geological whole. The schists
at Tanjung Batu suggest a geological extension of
 Milsom et al. 1685

Figure 12Fragmentation in the Buton region. Thick black lines show approximate locations of interpreted rifted
margins and of the Buton-Muna suture. Inset shows possible prerift configuration. Seram, Buru, and the Banda ridges
would have originally been located to the north and east of this composite block. Gravity contours as are in Figure 9.

southeast Sulawesi, perhaps with thin ophiolite
slivers producing the magnetic anomalies in the
north. A terrane suture is most probable along the
line of the Buton Straits, which can be interpreted
as a successor basin produced by slight relaxation
of compression following collision. The gravity
data suggest that the suture swings west just north
of the narrowest part of the strait and cuts across
southern Muna (Figure 12), following the lines of
the rotated northern arms of the two major inlets
in the south coast of the island. For the extreme
south of Muna to be geologically part of the south
Buton block is consistent with uplift patterns on
the two islands.
There is no geophysical evidence for a compres-
sional terrane boundary between Buton and the
Tukang Besi platform, but there is geological evi-
dence for some 60% compressional shortening of
Buton itself (Davidson, 1991). Without the thicken-
ing, which would inevitably accompany such short-
ening, the crust beneath Buton would be roughly
the same thickness as the crust beneath the plat-
form, which is compatible with Buton having
formed the leading edge of a combined block as it
1686 Buton Continental Fragment
collided with Sulawesi. The free-air gravity field, to
a greater extent even than the bathymetry, suggests
subsequent fragmentation into several discrete
blocks bounded by lineaments, many of which are
almost straight (Figure 12). An important stage in
the process that produced the present distribution
of high- and low-standing blocks might have been
the separation of southern from northern Buton by
dextral slip along a curved fault that followed the
earlier line of suture in the Buton Straits and across
southern Muna. Davidson (1991) identified the
Buton Straits as a site of transcurrent faulting, with
sinistral recent movements. Earlier and greater dex-
tral movement is indicated by the changes in trend
of the inlets in the south coast of Muna, and would
not only have realigned structural trends in south-
ern Buton, but also would have produced the
extensional basin in Kulisusu Bay. Separate, but
possibly related, extension would have been
required to separate the combined southern and
central Tukang Besi ridges from the northern ridge,
and the two blocks might then have moved inde-
pendently along a transcurrent fault parallel to the
southeastern coast of Buton. This relatively minor
dispersion would likely have taken place during the
deposition of the Tondo and Sampolakosa forma-
tions, and at the same time as the much greater
extension that generated the North Banda Basin on
the far side of the Hamilton fault. Small later shifts
could have destroyed the simple linearity of this lat-
ter fault.
HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION IN BUTON
AND THE BANDA ARC
Geophysical and morphological evidence sug-
gests that the boundary between the Buton terrane
and the remainder of the Sulawesi block runs
southwest across southern Muna and not south to
the end of the Buton Straits. Southern Muna there-
fore should be included within the prospective
area of the Buton block. From a local exploration
point of view, the gravitational evidence for a con-
tinuous east-west Neogene rift running from Muna
across central Buton and into Kulisusu Bay is impor-
tant because the coarse clastics of the Tondo
Formation are potential reservoirs for hydrocar-
bons from Triassic sources that reached maturity as
a consequence of middle Tertiary crustal thicken-
ing. Confirmation of the continuity of the rift
across central Buton is needed, but it would be dif-
ficult to obtain by either seismic survey or geologi-
cal mapping because of the rugged topography,
dense rainforest, and possible presence of flat-lying
detached overthrusts. A cost-effective initial stage
in any exploration program would be to acquire
additional gravity data in the critical area.
Gravity data confirm that the crust is of conti-
nental thickness beneath Buton and of near conti-
nental thickness beneath the Tukang Besi platform.
Neither the seismic reflection evidence for general
extension and only local compression immediately
east of Buton nor the lack of paleomagnetic evi-
dence for systematic post-Miocene rotation of
southern relative to northern Buton supports a late
Neogene collision between Buton and the Tukang
Besi platform. Steep gravity gradients east of Buton
define, even more clearly than do the bathymetric
contours, the division of the region into a number
of discrete blocks. The straight-line segments of
these gradients (Figure 12) seem improbable sites
for thrusting, but may plausibly be interpreted as
marking extensional or transcurrent faults. The
Pleistocene and continuing uplift of southern
Buton and Muna, and perhaps also the central ridge
of the Tukang Besi platform, may be consequences
of the Banda arcAustralia collision triggering the
detachment of some part of the lithosphere thick-
ened by the middle Miocene collision, leading to
isostatic rebound and perhaps further dispersal,
rather than local compression. The overall impres-
sion is one of fragmentation of a formerly more
compact ButonTukang Besi block, rather than
amalgamation.
Triassic carbonates similar to those of Buton are
known to exist on the Banda Ridges and could be
present on Tukang Besi also. There must be consid-
erable doubts as to whether organic-rich Triassic
rocks in either area would have reached levels of
maturity sufficient for the generation of liquid
hydrocarbons or whether suitable reservoirs could
be found, but any success in exploration on Buton
should prompt a second look at these little known
regions. The pre-Neogene of Tukang Besi was poor-
ly imaged by the Mariana 9 seismic reflection sur-
veys, but sediments could be present in significant
thicknesses if folded and faulted as on Buton.
Fragmentation on a still larger scale is indicated
by similarities between the Mesozoic sedimentary
successions of Buton, Buru, and Seram and suggests
that these islands were originally parts of a single
geological unit (Bubuse microcontinent). Evidence
for a late Neogene age for the oceanic crust beneath
the North Banda Basin (Rhault et al., 1994b)
implies that the three islands, and also the Banda
ridges and the Tukang Besi platform, were much
closer together at the beginning of the Miocene
than they are today. Although Buton was incorporat-
ed into the Sulawesi block by the middle Miocene
collision, Buru and Seram apparently were dis-
persed during subsequent orogenic collapse. Seram
then experienced collision orogenesis, with short-
ening and the emplacement of thin thrust sheets, as
part of the Banda orogeny in the Pliocene and
Pleistocene, and Buru may have suffered a similar

fate, although it may not have been affected by
thrusting at any time (Tjokrosapoetro et al., 1993).
Davidson (1991), in emphasizing the similarities
between Buton and the islands of the Outer Banda
arc, correlated the Upper Triassic hydrocarbon
source rocks of Buton not only with parts of the
Kanikeh and Manusela formations of Seram, but
also with the Aitutu Formation of Timor. The simi-
larities in the timings of thrust sheet emplacement
in Buton and Timor (Berry and Grady, 1981) raise
the possibility that Timor, or at least the part of the
Timor composite terrane that was involved in the
thrusting, also was a part of the Bubuse continental
fragment. There is nothing in the geophysical data
discussed that contradicts this hypothesis and
much that supports it; however, a geological prob-
lem exists in that the Aitutu commonly is identified
as part of the continental shelf unit (parauto-
chthon) on Timor (Barber, 1978). This implies
transfer across the plate boundary only during the
most recent, PliocenePleistocene, collision,
whereas the equivalent rocks on Buton must have
been incorporated into southeastern Asia much
earlier. It seems necessary to suppose that many of
the rocks of the allochthon and parautochthon on
Timor, and perhaps on Seram, are so similar that
they cannot be distinguished at the present level of
mapping.
Because of the slow rate of sedimentation during
the JurassicPaleogene drift period, burial depths
necessary for hydrocarbon generation were proba-
bly not reached on Buton until after the middle
Miocene collision and thickening. This could also
be true of other fragments of the Bubuse microcon-
tinent. Hydrocarbons generated in the tectonically
thickened sections could then have migrated into
traps created during late MiocenePliocene exten-
sion and PliocenePleistocene Banda arc collision.
Bubuse fragments where thrust stacking has been
important therefore are the more promising explo-
ration targets in this frontier area. The Outer Banda
arc provides the most attractive Bubuse exploration
targets because of the additional possibility of the
migration of hydrocarbons from the underthrusting
Australian continental margin.
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 Milsom et al. 1689

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

John Milsom Sudarwono

John Milsom received a B.A.
degree in physics from Oxford
University in 1961 and a Ph.D. in geo-
physics from Imperial College,
London, following work in Australia
and New Guinea for the Australian
government. He has since worked
widely as a consultant to the oil and
mining industries and as a researcher,
with a focus on the southeast Asia-
Melanesia area. He is now senior lec-
turer in exploration geophysics at University College,
London.
Sudarwono received his B.S.
degree in geophysics and meteorolo-
gy and his M.Sc. in geophysics from
the Institute of Technology, Bandung.
He joined the Geophysics Division of
the Geological Research and De-
velopment Centre (formerly the
Geological Survey of Indonesia) in
Bandung in 1982 and has since spe-
cialized in regional gravity studies.

Jason Ali
Jason Ali received his B.Sc.
degree from North Staffordshire
Polytechnic in 1985 and his Ph.D. in
paleomagnetism applied to North
Sea Paleogene sequences from the
University of Southampton in 1989.
He remained at Southampton until
1995 working on the paleomag-
netism of Indonesia and the west-
ern Pacific, with participation in
ODP (Ocean-Drilling Program)
cruises to the Mariana-Bonin forearcs and the southeast-
ern Greenland margin. He is now a research fellow in the
Earth Sciences Department at Hong Kong University.