Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269 282

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The deep crust beneath island arcs: Inherited zircons reveal a

Gondwana continental fragment beneath East Java, Indonesia
H.R. Smyth a,, P.J. Hamilton b , R. Hall a , P.D. Kinny b
a
SE Asia Research Group, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW200EX, UK
b
Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University of Technology, Perth 6845, Australia
Received 21 November 2006; received in revised form 21 March 2007; accepted 21 March 2007
Available online 1 April 2007
Editor: R.W. Carlson

Abstract

Inherited zircons in Cenozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks of East Java range in age from Archean to Cenozoic. The
distribution of zircons reveals two different basement types at depth. The igneous rocks of the Early Cenozoic arc, found along the
southeast coast, contain only Archean to Cambrian zircons. In contrast, clastic rocks of north and west of East Java contain
Cretaceous zircons, which are not found in the arc rocks to the south. The presence of Cretaceous zircons supports previous
interpretations that much of East Java is underlain by arc and ophiolitic rocks, accreted to the Southeast Asian margin during
Cretaceous subduction. However, such accreted material cannot account for the older zircons. The age populations of Archean to
Cambrian zircons in the arc rocks are similar to Gondwana crust. We interpret the East Java Early Cenozoic arc to be underlain by a
continental fragment of Gondwana origin and not Cretaceous material as previously suggested. Melts rising through the crust,
feeding the Early Cenozoic arc, picked up the ancient zircons through assimilation or partial melting. We suggest a Western
Australian origin for the fragment, which rifted from Australia during the Mesozoic and collided with Southeast Asia, resulting in
the termination of Cretaceous subduction. Continental crust was therefore present at depth beneath the arc in south Java when
Cenozoic subduction began in the Eocene.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: East Java, Indonesia; Gondwana basement; zircon UPb SHRIMP

1. Introduction volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Xenoliths studies have

The character of the deep crust beneath many vol-
canic arcs in Southeast Asia is not known. There have
been few seismic refraction studies, and the deep crustal
rocks are often covered by thick sequences of young
Corresponding author. Presently of CASP, Department of Earth
Sciences, University of Cambridge, West Building, 181a Huntingdon
Road, Cambridge, CB3 0DH, UK. Tel.: +44 1223 277586; fax: +44
1223 276604.
E-mail address: helen.smyth@casp.cam.ac.uk (H.R. Smyth).
0012-821X/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2007.03.044
proven to be extremely useful in other volcanic arcs [1]
where they have shown crustal character and magma
crustal interaction but there have been none in Java. In
East Java, Indonesia, the basement has long been con-
sidered Cretaceous in age and arc and ophiolitic in
character. No continental rocks are exposed or reported
on East Java. The assumed character of the crust is based
on small and isolated exposures of basement rocks and a
handful of basement-penetrating exploration wells. UPb
dating of zircons in this study provides compelling ev-
idence for the presence of a continental fragment of
270 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282
Gondwana affinity within the deep crust of East Java.
This fragment was sampled by melts feeding Early Ce-
nozoic arc volcanism.
2. Geological background
2.1. Regional setting
The island of Java is located within the Indonesian
archipelago between the landmasses of Eurasia and
Australia, on the southeast margin of the Eurasian Plate.
The southeastern part of the Eurasian Plate is known as
Sundaland (Fig. 1), which is the Mesozoic continental
core of Southeast Asia [2]. Sundaland is not a single
homogenous block of continental crust or a stable con-
tinental block; it was formed by the Early Mesozoic
through the amalgamation of continental blocks [3,4].
During the late Cretaceous terranes of arc and ophiolitic
material of Cretaceous age were accreted to the southern
margin of Sundaland along a northeastsouthwest
trending subduction zone [2]. Subduction moved to its
present-day position and eastwest orientation, south of
Java, along the Java Trench in the Early Paleogene [4].
Cenozoic sequences exposed today on East Java rest
unconformably above terranes accreted in the Cretaceous.
2.2. Character of the basement
The interpreted NESW orientation of the Creta-
ceous subduction zone is somewhat speculative, due to
Fig. 1. Current plate tectonic setting showing the extent of Sundaland [2] and the location of the study area of East Java. The modern volcanoes of the
Sunda Arc are shown in black triangles.
limited exposure. The orientation was determined by
linking the exposures of subduction complexes in
Central Java to those in the Meratus Mountains in SE
Kalimantan (Fig. 2) [2,5]. There is no evidence of a relic
subduction complex cross-cutting the Java Sea, but this
may be due to thick Cenozoic sedimentary cover and
lack of publicly available data from deep penetrating
seismic surveys.
The character of basement beneath most of East Java is
unknown and surmised from spatially limited data.
Exposures of basement rocks in Java are rare, and are
found only at Ciletuh in West Java, Karangsambung and
the Jiwo Hills in the western part of East Java (Fig. 2).
These exposures account for less than 1% of the land area.
Lithologies exposed are Cretaceous in age and typical of
arc and ophiolitic terranes, including basaltic pillow lavas,
cherts, limestone, schists, and metasedimentary rocks
[58]. In addition to those at Karangsambung there are
occurrences of high pressure metamorphic rocks such as
jadeitequartzglaucophane bearing rocks and eclogite
interpreted to be diagnostic of subduction zone metamor-
phism [9]. Cretaceous ages have been determined for the
basement rocks at Karangsambung using radiolaria within
the cherts [7] and KAr dates on muscovite from quartz
mica schist ranging from 110 to 124 Ma [5,9].
2.3. Volcanic activity
Java is essentially a volcanic island and two Cenozoic
volcanic arcs are preserved on East Java: the modern arc
 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282 271

Fig. 2. Reported basement configuration of the southern margin of Sundaland adapted from Hamilton [2], Parkinson et al. [5] and Miyazaki et al. [9].
The ages quoted are KAr dates for metamorphic material from offshore bore holes [2] and outcrop [5,9].

which has been active from the Late Miocene and an arc
of Early Cenozoic volcanoes known as the Southern
Mountains Arc. The two arcs are separated by a distance
of 50 km, the modern arc occupying the central spine of
the island and the eroded remnants of the Southern
Mountains Arc exposed along the southern coast (Fig. 3).
The older arc had been thought to be of Oligo-Miocene
age [10], but recent studies [6] indicate that the arc was
active from the Middle Eocene until the Early Miocene.
The erupted products range from andesite to rhyolite and
form lava flows and domes, volcanic breccias, and
extensive pyroclastic deposits including flow, fall, and
surge deposits. The arc rocks are intruded by numerous
high-level igneous bodies that range from Eocene to
Pliocene in age and basalt to granodiorite in composition.
Some of these intrusions are contemporaneous with arc

Fig. 3. Locations of samples containing populations of ancient zircons. Early Cenozoic volcanic centres are marked as white circles.
272 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282
activity and others post-date it and are associated with the
volcanism in the modern arc.
In addition to the volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks
exposed in the southern part of East Java, there are thick
Cenozoic sedimentary sequences to the north of the arc.
The source of these clastic sediments has long been
assumed to be Sundaland to the north and west
[2,11,12].
As the erupted products of the Southern Moun-
tains Arc are poorly dated a study was designed to
utilise SIMS UPb dating of zircons to provide age
constraints on the development of the arc. In addition it
was hoped that the zircons would provide provenance
information on the sedimentary rocks exposed within
and to the north of the arc, which are commonly assumed
to be derived from the continental rocks of Sundaland
[2,11,12]. This paper reports the unexpected results of
this study.
2.4. Predicted age range
Assuming that the basement of East Java is, as Hamilton
[2] suggested, Cretaceous arc and ophiolitic fragments,
and knowing the history of Cenozoic arc volcanism on
the island, the predicted zircon age range would be
Cretaceous to present-day. It was a surprise to discover
that in addition to this predicted range there are significant
numbers of Cambrian and older zircon grains in many of
the samples analysed. Below we document the range and
distribution of the old zircon grains identified in the
igneous and clastic rocks from East Java, and discuss their
potential origin.
3. Methods
3.1. Samples analysed
We report the results of zircon UPb SIMS dating of
17 Cenozoic samples of igneous (6 intrusive bodies and
4 extrusive rocks), volcaniclastic (n = 3) and sedimen-
tary (n = 4) rocks. The samples are listed in Table 1 and
their locations shown in Fig. 3. In the samples reported
here more than 350 spot dates were measured and of
these 290 were Cretaceous and older.
3.2. Analytical method
Zircon grains were analysed for Pb isotope compo-
sition and U, Th and Pb concentrations using the
SHRIMP facility at Curtin University of Technology.
The results are summarised in Table 1 and further details
of the samples and analytical methods are given in the
Supplementary material. Dates greater than 1250 Ma are
calculated from 207Pb/206Pb ratios, and from this group
analyses with greater than 15% discordance were ex-
cluded from any age plots. Dates less than 1250 Ma are
calculated from 206Pb/238 U ratios as these yield more
reliable results because of uncertainties in common Pb
corrections. All grains older than 100 Ma have been
corrected for common Pb using 204 Pb, and those younger
than 100 Ma have been corrected using 208 Pb. All errors
quoted in the text are 2m.
3.3. Probability of missing a population of ages
As this was the first study of its type in East Java,
there was some uncertainty about the expected range of
dates. The strategy adopted was to analyse a relatively
small number of grains ( 1550) from a large number
of samples, rather than the more conventional approach
of analysis of a large number of grains from a small
number of samples. As a large range of zircon ages was
obtained, consideration must be given as to whether the
population of zircons has been fully sampled. This
problem is discussed in detail in Dodson et al. [13] and
Cawood et al. [14] who show that for detrital zircons 60
analyses are necessary to sample the entire population
with greater than 95% confidence. For any population of
dates that is significant, say greater than 20% of the total
population, there is less than a 3.5% chance that it will
be missed in a sample set comprising only the smallest
number of the grains analysed in this study (n = 15
grains). We are thus confident that with 1535 grains
analysed the probability of sampling any population
comprising more than 20% is high.
4. Results
4.1. Age range observed
When examining the entire dataset several distinct
peaks (Fig. 4A) can be identified in the entire popu-
lation: a Cenozoic peak (n = 55), a Cretaceous peak
(n = 77), three Cambrian to Proterozoic peaks (n = 166)
of 500750 Ma, 9001250 Ma, 16001850 Ma, and an
Archean peak of 25002800 Ma (n = 38). In addition
there are 9 zircon ages ranging from Devonian to
Jurassic but these do not form a significant peak. This
paper details the Cretaceous and older zircon results.
4.2. Lithology and zircon ages
The distribution of zircons of different ages is shown
on Fig. 4 and discussed in detail below.
 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282 273

Table 1
Samples and ages of inherited zircons in East Java
Position Sample Region Lithology Cretaceous Ordovician Proterozoic Archean
Jurassic Cambrian
Igneous Central Java Jhs2KaliS3 Nanggulan, West Basaltic sill 0 1 12 8
Progo Mountains
Central Java Jhs2AND1 Nanggulan, West Andesite 1 0 12 3
Progo Mountains intrusion
Southern Jhs2AN7 Pendul Hill, Bayat, Diorite 0 0 11 2
Mountains Arc Klaten
Southern Jhs2PON4 Ponorogo Diorite 0 0 9 5
Mountains Arc
Southern Jhs2Treng6 Trenggelek Diorite 0 0 23 1
Mountains Arc
Southern Jhs2Jember10 Sukamede, Jember Granodiorite 0 0 14 2
Mountains Arc
Southern Jhs3Prambanan Prambanan, Dacitic ash 0 0 9 1
Mountains Arc Yogyakarta
Southern Jhs2PAC7 Pacitan Dacitic ash 0 0 15 6
Mountains Arc
Southern Jhs2TUN4 Tulunagung Dacitic pumice 0 0 19 8
Mountains Arc breccia
Southern Jhs2Turen14 Turen Andesitic breccia 0 1 11 0
Mountains Arc
Volcaniclastic Central Java Jhs2KK13 Karangsambung, Reworked andesitic 27 0 1 0
Central Java breccia
Central Java Jhs2Langse1 Karangsambung, Volcaniclastic 13 0 0 0
Central Java Core sandstone
sample provided by
Coparex Indonesia
Southern Jhs2Santren1 Batu Agung, Crystal-rich 3 0 0 0
Mountains Arc Yogyakarta tuffaceous sandstone
Sedimentary Shelf Jhs1-012 Lodan Quarries, Quartz-rich sandstone 15 1 0 0
Rembang
Basin Jhs2Lutut6 Kali Lutut, Quartz-rich sandstone 6 2 10 0
Semarang
Southern Jhs2SERMO6 Sermo Quartz-rich sandstone 4 1 13 1
Mountains Reservoir, West
Arc Progo Mountains
Southern Jhs2NW12 Nanggulan, West 8 3 7 1
Mountains Arc Progo Mountains Quartz-rich sandstone
Total zircons (291) 77 9 166 38
No. of samples (17) 8 6 14 11

4.2.1. Igneous rocks westernmost sample (Jhs2KK13) yielded older zircons,

The 6 intrusive and 4 extrusive igneous rocks contain
a range of Cambrian and older zircons (n = 155). The
samples lack Cretaceous zircons (Fig. 4), with the ex-
ception of a sample from Central Java (Jhs2AND1)
which yielded a single Cretaceous zircon. One sample
from a basaltic sill in Central Java (Jhs2KaliS3) yielded
a single Carboniferous age. Of the igneous samples,
only one extrusive rock from East Java (Jhs2Turen14)
failed to yield Archean grains.
a single grain of Mesoproterozoic age (1079 36 Ma).
All 4 of the sedimentary rocks analysed were quartz-rich
sandstones. These sandstones yielded varied zircon
ages. All of the sandstones contain Cretaceous grains
(n = 33) (Fig. 4B). The northernmost sandstone sample
from the edge of the Sunda Shelf (Jhs1-012) contains a
single JurassicTriassic grain, but no older grains. The
other sandstones from the south contain a range of
Cambrian and older grains (n = 22).

4.2.2. Clastic rocks 4.2.3. Spatial distribution of zircon dates

The 3 volcaniclastic rocks yielded a significant The samples containing different zircon dates do
number of Cretaceous zircons (n = 42) but only the have a clear geographical pattern. The Archean grains
274 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282

Fig. 4. A. Age range of zircons (bins on the histogram represent 25 Ma and the values are plotted with 2 errors) B. Samples with Cretaceous zircons.
C. Samples with Ordovician to Jurassic zircons. D. Samples with Proterozoic to Cambrian zircons. E. Samples with Archean zircons.

are found only in rocks of the Southern Mountains Arc 5. Discussion

(Fig. 4E) and the igneous rocks of this area contain
no Cretaceous zircons. Cretaceous zircons are present
only in rocks located in the west and north (Fig. 4B).
Cretaceous zircons have been identified only in sedi-
mentary and volcaniclastic rocks and one igneous rock
from the western part of the study area. This distribution
is interpreted to reveal the character of the crust beneath
East Java.
5.1. Origin and incorporation of the zircons into the
rocks of East Java
The age range identified in the samples from East
Java is much greater than would be predicted whether
derived from a Sundaland source or local basement
source of Cretaceous arc and ophiolitic rocks.
 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282 275

5.1.1. Possible Sundaland Sources
Sundaland, the continental core of Southeast Asia, is
the closest and most obvious source of very old zircons
(Fig. 5). Rocks which could have provided abundant
zircons are granites of southwest Borneo [2], the Malay
Peninsula [15], the ThaiMalay Tin Belt [16] and
Sumatra [17,18]. These regions could have been a
source of Mesozoic and Paleozoic material, but no
Archean rocks are known, nor is there any indication
that they are underlain by Archean crust.
There are abundant granites of Cretaceous age
located in the Schwaner Mountains and the Thai
Malay Tin Belt which are known to have contributed
material to the Paleogene sedimentary sequences of
Northern Borneo [19]. If these source regions also
provided material to East Java, the zircon populations
would be similar. The zircon populations of these
regions are dominated by Cretaceous zircons with age
peaks different from those in East Java, there are abun-
dant PermianTriassic zircons (Fig. 6C), which are rare
in East Java, and Precambrian zircons are mainly
Paleoproterozoic with very rare Archean zircons [19].
In addition to the differences in zircon populations,
there are paleogeographic factors to be considered. The
island of Java is separated from Borneo by the shallow
waters of the Java Sea. Beneath the flat-lying siliciclas-
tic and carbonate Pleistocene deposits of the Sunda
Shelf there are numerous broad NESW trending ridges

Fig. 5. Potential source areas for Cambrian and older zircons in East Java.
276 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282

Fig. 6. Comparison of the CambrianArchean data set from East Java with sediments of the Perth Basin Australia and Northern Borneo. A. East Java
data set. B. Young placer deposits of the Perth Basin, known to be the product of erosion of the Proterozoic and Archean rocks of Western Australia
[34]. C. Range of detrital zircon ages for Paleogene sandstones from Northern Borneo [19]. Bins on the histogram represent 25 Ma and the values are
plotted with 2 errors.
 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282
flanked by narrow deep Cenozoic basins. During the
earlier part of the Cenozoic the ridges and basins would
have acted as barriers or traps preventing sediment
passing to the south and east from Sundaland into East
Java. Indeed the ridges themselves may have acted as
sediment source areas. One such ridge on the edge of
Sundaland, the Karimunjawa Arch (Fig. 5), is reported
to have been elevated throughout much of the Late
Eocene to Late Miocene [20,21]. The elevation of the
arch has been interpreted to be responsible for the
different sedimentary environments recorded in the East
and West Java Seas. To the east of the arch, the Lower
Miocene and Oligocene sediments are marine, but to the
west most of the Lower Miocene and all of the
Oligocene sediments are non-marine [20,21]. The
Karimunjawa Arch is reported to have been a source
of sediment to both the East and West Java Sea Basins
and potentially provided sediment to the area of present-
day Java between the Late Eocene and Late Miocene.
There are exposures of metasedimentary rocks on small
islands on the arch but none are dated as they are
terrestrial. They are interpreted to be pre-Cenozoic in
age and part of the continental basement of Sundaland.
This basement could be the source of the Cretaceous
zircon grains in East Java's clastic sequences.
5.1.2. Possible Gondwana Sources
The ArcheanCambrian peaks identified coincide
with periods of major crustal growth represented by the
Pan African and Grenville age orogens and the Archean
cratons [22,23]. These peaks are characteristic of much
of the Gondwana margin as recorded in the rocks of
southern and east India [24], eastern and northern
Antarctica [23,25,26], eastern Africa [22,23] and
western Australia [14,2729]. The rocks of Sundaland
are not known to share this history. Plate tectonic
reconstructions of Gondwanaland prior to and following
break-up indicate that it is unlikely that either Antarctic
or African material could have contributed to Sundaland
[3032]. The largest and closest area of Archean conti-
nental crust is Australia, which formed part of Gond-
wana until the Cretaceous.
Basement rocks in Western Australia are of Protero-
zoic and Archean age (Fig. 6B). As these ancient rocks
have been the focus of detailed zircon dating studies,
many of the basement blocks have age fingerprints
[28,29,33,34]. The rocks at the surface in Western
Australia are representative of much of the Gondwana
margin. A large published dataset [34] from Western
Australia was chosen to compare with that obtained
from East Java. The dataset [34] focuses on the young
placer sediments of the Perth Basin, which are the
277
eroded products of Precambrian basement rocks which
are currently exposed in Western Australia. The detrital
zircons dated from these placer deposits have three
major age peaks and these can be correlated with known
source areas [28,29,34]. The Cambrian to Neoproter-
ozoic zircons (500800 Ma) were produced by the
erosion of the Pan African Pinjarra Orogenic Belt, the
Mesoproterozoic zircons (10001300 Ma) were derived
from the Grenvillian Albany Fraser Orogenic Belt, and
the Archean zircons (25003200 Ma) were eroded from
the Yilgarn and Pilbara Cratons. There are also a limited
number of dates which correspond to the formation of
the Capricorn Orogenic Belt (16002000 Ma).
A range of Archean and Proterozoic peaks has also
been reported from the Higher Himalayan Gneisses in
India [35]. Yoshida and Upreti [35] suggest that these
peaks represent terranes derived from a Circum-East
Antarctic origin, which could have included part of
Greater India. However, the peaks identified do not
match those reported in this study.
The Western Australia peaks are remarkably similar
to those identified in the Southern Mountains Arc of
East Java (Fig. 6). Given this correlation it is plausible
that Western Australia or a region with a similar geo-
logical history, such as other parts of the Gondwana
margin, was the source of material.
5.2. Incorporation of the zircons
Zircon is a highly refractory mineral. Zircon is known
to survive numerous sedimentary cycles, metamorphism
and diagenesis [36]. The zircon grains identified in the
sedimentary rocks of East Java could have been
incorporated through erosion and transport of sediment
from exposed source areas, such as the local basement,
the Karimunjawa Arch or from volcanic sources by air-
fall and subsequent reworking. The incorporation of
zircons into the igneous rocks requires more explanation.
As well as being resistant to weathering, zircon is
known to survive episodes of melting [37]. Material of
Gondwana origin must have been introduced to the melts
feeding the Southern Mountains Arc. There are several
mechanisms whereby this introduction could occur.
5.2.1. Subducted sediment
Sediment eroded from western Australia deposited
on the Indo-Australian plate could have been carried
north to the Java Trench as Australia moved north.
However, even today a fan similar in size to the modern
Bengal Fan would be required to bring material from
Australia to the site of subduction at the Java Trench
(Fig. 5). During the Early Cenozoic Australia lay very
278 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282

Fig. 7. Plate tectonic reconstruction of SE Asia and Australia at 45 Ma [4]. The light grey shaded area around Australia shows the approximate extent
of continental crust based on present-day bathymetry and mapping of the continentalocean boundary. The ornamented area west of western
Australia indicates the surmised area of continental crust that rifted from Australia in the Jurassic and early Cretaceous. We suggest that the East Java
fragment probably originated in the southern part of this area.

far south of its current position (Fig. 7), and at 45 Ma the
distance between Australia and East Java would have
exceeded 1900 km [4]. If the fan model were correct, the
sedimentary sequences on the IndianAustralian plate
currently entering the Java Trench would correspond to
a relatively proximal position on the Cenozoic fan.
However, today there is little sedimentary cover on the
IndianAustralian plate south of Java [38]. In addi-
tion the modern Bengal Fan is fed by erosion of the
Himalayas, and there is no evidence of a similar moun-
tain belt in NW Australia during the Cenozoic.
Sediment of Gondwana origin could have been
introduced into the Java Trench by axial transport from
the Bird's Head microcontinent, New Guinea or from
the Himalayas via the Bengal Fan, although both are
unlikely. The basement rocks of the Bird's Head micro-
continent were not available for erosion as the Bird's
Head was the site of active carbonate sedimentation
during most of the Cenozoic and so can be excluded as a
source [39]. If sediment was produced by the erosion of
the Himalaya it would require transport via the Bengal
Fan to the Java Trench and total transport distances
would exceed 4000 km. In addition to this significant
distance, there were topographic barriers at the Inves-
tigator Fracture and the Ninety East Ridge which would
have hampered the flow of sediment. The lack of Bengal
Fan material today in the Java Trench offshore East Java
[38] adds to the argument that this is not a plausible
mechanism. It is equally unlikely that sediment from
the Himalayan region could travel a distance of over
3500 km from Indochina across Sundaland, by-passing
its deep basins, structural highs and ridges [40].
5.2.2. Subducted continental fragment
The subduction of a fragment of continental crust
also seems unlikely. Buoyancy forces make subduction
of continental crust difficult and even if these were
overcome, the fragment is required to have supplied
 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282
melts from the Eocene to the Miocene, a period of
around 20 Ma. The fragment either remained stationary
beneath the Southern Mountains or was 1500 km in
length based on the present subduction rate of 75 mm/yr
[41] and Cenozoic plate tectonic reconstructions [4].
Neither of these scenarios is likely.
5.2.3. Collision/accretion of a continental fragment
An alternative, simpler and more plausible explana-
tion is that there is a fragment of continental crust of
Gondwana character beneath the Southern Mountains
Arc. This fragment must have been in place before
subduction began in its current position along the Java
Trench. We suggest that the fragment collided with the
margin of Sundaland terminating the Late Cretaceous
phase of subduction. The origin of this fragment is
discussed in detail below. Magmas rising through, or
pooling in, the continental crust would lead to partial
melting or assimilation of material.
The presence of continental crust is supported by the
evolved character of the products of the Southern
Mountains Arc and the rocks which intrude them. The
volcanic rocks range from andesite to rhyolite (6077 wt.%
SiO2) with an estimated average SiO2 content of 67 wt.%
[6], and a significant proportion of the high-level intrusive
bodies are granodiorites. These rocks are considerably
more evolved than the basic-intermediate eruptive products
of the present-day volcanoes. The chemistry of the modern
arc volcanic rocks in East Java [4244] indicates they are
the products of relatively primitive subduction melts
having no significant interaction with underlying crust.
The difference in chemistry of the products of the Southern
Mountains Arc and the Sunda Arc could be explained in a
number of ways: fractional crystallization of basic magma,
or contamination by melting of felsic continental basement
crust (C. Macpherson, 2006, pers. comm.). The evidence
from zircon dating suggests that partial melting of con-
tinental basement is the most likely explanation.
The distribution of pre-Cenozoic zircons (Fig. 4) and
the character of the arc rocks indicate that the conti-
nental fragment is present only beneath the Southern
Mountains whereas north of the Southern Mountains
there is no continental basement. The deep crust to the
north of the arc is probably Cretaceous arc or ophiolitic
terranes, as suggested by Hamilton [2], representing
material accreted during Cretaceous subduction or
underplated during collision.
Sribudiyani et al. [45] also inferred the presence of a
continental fragment beneath East Java. Their interpre-
tation is based on the distribution of quartz-rich sand-
stones assumed to have a continental origin. A detailed
study of the provenance of these sandstones raised
279
doubts about the continental source as many of the
sandstones contain considerable acidic volcanic mate-
rial, probably derived from the Southern Mountains Arc
[6]. Thus, although we agree with the interpretation of
Sribudiyani et al. [45] of a continental fragment beneath
East Java, we dispute the evidence on which their
interpretation is based, and consequently differ on the
timing of arrival of the continental fragment.
6. Character and origin of the crust beneath East
Java
6.1. Character of the crust
The distribution of pre-Cenozoic zircons in samples
from East Java provides new information about the
character of the deep crust about which little was pre-
viously known. We suggest that the most likely expla-
nation for the zircon age range sampled in East Java is that
there is a fragment of continental crust of Archean age,
Gondwana affinity and potentially of Western Australian
origin at depth beneath the Southern Mountains.
The size of the East Java fragment can be estimated
by utilising the spatial distribution of the different zircon
age populations and other supporting evidence. Cur-
rently none of the data suggests that the continental
fragment extends north beneath the modern Sunda Arc.
Therefore, the northern boundary must be located north
of the Southern Mountains but south of the modern
Sunda Arc (Fig. 8). The character of the crust beneath
the modern arc is still unclear, but there is no indication
of a continental contribution to the magmas feeding the
arc [e.g. [42]]. The deep crust is likely to be similar in
composition to the Cretaceous arc and ophiolitic frag-
ments known from exposures in Central Java.
The lack of Cretaceous material within the igneous
rocks of the Southern Mountains Arc to the west of the
Yogyakarta area suggests that a terrane boundary exists in
this region between Cretaceous crust and the East Java
continental fragment. This boundary is interpreted to co-
incide with a major northeastsouthwest trending struc-
ture identified at approximately 110.5E [6] (Fig. 8B).
This lineament links several major features onshore and
offshore, a structural high in the Java Forearc, and the
aligned centres of three Oligo-Miocene volcanoes [10] in
the West Progo Mountains, Mount Merapi and the un-
usual K-rich back-arc volcano of Mount Muria. In the
region close to the boundary between the Cretaceous crust
and the older Gondwana fragment mixing of zircons of
different ages could easily occur through assimilation or
partial melting of the crust during magma ascent, or uplift
and erosion of the basement rocks.
280 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282
Fig. 8. Character of the crust on the southeastern margin of Sundaland.
A. Extent of the continental fragment onshore East Java. B. Map
showing the proposed extent of the East Java fragment beneath
Sulawesi. C. Sketch cross-section.
Terrane boundaries are rarely straight or uniform
features, but are embayed and irregular, and their shape
is dictated by original rift morphology and collision
tectonics. Therefore the margins of the East Java frag-
ment could be structurally complex.
6.2. Origin and extent of the fragment
Several fragments rifted off the Australian margin
during the Mesozoic in a phase of break-up preceding the
separation of India from Gondwana [3,46,47]. We sug-
gest that one such fragment or fragments collided with
the margin of Sundaland during the Late Cretaceous
forming the basement to the Southern Mountains Arc.
Prior to the collision, arc and ophiolitic terranes were
accreted and formed a belt on to the margin of Sundaland
(Fig. 8). The ophiolitic blocks may be remnants of Indian
Ocean crust which preceded the continental fragment on
the northward-moving plate.
The timing of collision of the fragment pre-dates the
Middle Eocene as continental crust was already present
beneath the arc when subduction began at that time. We
suggest that the collision of this fragment resulted in the
termination of Cretaceous subduction. Following the
renewal of subduction during the Middle Eocene, the
Cenozoic melts feeding the Southern Mountains Arc
were contaminated by interaction with the continental
fragment.
Manur and Barraclough [48] indicate the presence of
two fragments (Fig. 8B), in the areas of the Bawean
Arch and Paternoster Platform, of Pre-Cenozoic conti-
nental crust (the shape, orientation and age of which are
very poorly constrained) in the Java Sea. These occur
between the belt of ophiolitic and arc blocks and the
East Java fragment. It is possible that these fragments
are a continuation of the East Java fragment, but as there
is no evidence of continental crust to the north of the
Southern Mountains, beneath the Sunda Arc, it is dif-
ficult to envisage how these fragments could be linked.
The eastern extent of the East Java fragment is not
known. However, in Sulawesi continental rocks of similar
age to those identified in the East Java fragment have been
reported [49]. Geochemical and zircon dating evidence
from the Malino Metamorphic complex of northwest
Sulawesi reveals the presence of Archean material with
ages up to 3500 Ma [49,50]. We suggest that the East Java
fragment extends to the northwest, beneath western
Sulawesi, forming a large arcuate block on the southeast
margin of Sundaland (Fig. 8B). Geochemical analysis of
the modern volcanic products on Java [4244] suggests
that the magmas are not sampling continental crust.
However, the rocks analysed have been basic, and we
 H.R. Smyth et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 258 (2007) 269282
suggest that a study of the more evolved volcanic rocks
would be profitable. Basic rocks are not suitable for a
study of the kind reported here as they contain only rare or
very small zircons. The study of more evolved volcanic
rocks from volcanoes between East Java and northwest
Sulawesi could identify the extent of the fragment.
7. Conclusions
This is the first firm evidence of a Gondwana con-
tinental fragment in this part of Southeast Asia. Prior to
this study little was known about the character of the
crust beneath much of Java and in particular nothing was
known about the crust beneath the Paleogene arc. The
continental fragment beneath the Southern Mountains of
East Java was identified by the distribution of ancient
zircons in the Cenozoic igneous and sedimentary rocks.
UPb dating of zircons from East Java has allowed
distinct basement types to be mapped. In the north and
west there is Cretaceous accreted arc and ophiolitic
material and in the south along the Southern Mountains
Arc there is compelling evidence for a fragment of
Gondwana continental crust. The rising Cenozoic melts
feeding the Southern Mountains Arc mixed with the
continental crust and picked up ancient zircons through
assimilation or partial melting. This fragment could be
large and may extend beneath Sulawesi.
The zircons dated in southeast Java are very similar
in age to those of the Gondwana terranes of India and
Australia. Mesozoic reconstructions of the region show
a history of Mesozoic rifting of Gondwana fragments
from northwest Australia and this is thought to be the
ultimate source of the zircons in the igneous and sedi-
mentary rocks of East Java.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the SE Asia Research
Group at Royal Holloway, supported by an oil company
consortium. Financial assistance for SHRIMP dating
was provided by CSIRO, Australia. We are grateful to
GRDC, ITB, LIPI, Eko Budi Lelono, Peter Lunt, Colin
Macpherson and Heather Handley. Jhs2Langse1 sample
was provided by Lundin Banyumas. We thank Jason Ali
and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on
the manuscript.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article
can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.
epsl.2007.03.044.
281
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