Abstract

New K/Ar mineral ages from the Barisan Mountains of southern Sumatra suggest four main periods of plutonic activity: Miocene-Pliocene (20–5 Ma), Early Eocene (60–50 Ma), Mid-Late Cretaceous (117–80 Ma) and Jurassic-Early Cretaceous (203–130 Ma). These and all other published ages from exposed plutons in western Sumatra indicate a further period of plutonic activity in the Permian (287–256 Ma). They also suggest either that Early Mesozoic activity began in the Late Triassic, or that there were two distinct magmatic cycles, one in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic (220–190 Ma) and one extending from the Mid-Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (170–130 Ma). In addition, poorly controlled ages from eastern Sumatra indicate that the important Triassic to Early Jurassic (240–195 Ma) tin-belt magmatism of the peninsular Malaysia Main Range Province extends into that area.

Preliminary geochemical studies on the Mesozoic granitoids of the Barisan Range of southern Sumatra confirm that they are calc-alkaline, I-type, metaluminous, subduction-related volcanic arc granites (VAG). They broadly correspond to the southerly extension of a combination of the Central Valley and Western Granite Provinces of Thailand and Burma, and underline the fact that there has been a history of subduction-related magmatism along the southwestern edge of Sundaland since earliest Mesozoic times. The plutonic suites are crudely arranged in subparallel, locally overlapping, NW-SE trending belts, focused along deep-seated faults that have acted as magmatic conduits. It is proposed as a preliminary model that breaks in plutonic activity broadly correspond to changes in approach angle and/or rate of subduction, and that in some instances at least they relate to periods of collision and accretion of allochthonous material (terranes, slivers or blocks) of both oceanic and continental character. At least two such events seem to have occurred during the Mesozoic-Cenozoic tectono-plutonic evolution of Sumatra. One in the early Middle Cretaceous reflects collision and accretion of the oceanic Woyla terranes, and one in the latest Cretaceous is possibly related to collision of a continental sliver/block, the West Sumatra terrane, to the Sundaland margin.