ABSTRACT
The tectonic structures include cratonic fragments derived from the classical phase of Gondwanan breakup, and Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic terranes and island arcs. Palaeozoic terranes and microcontinents of Gondwanan origin are found in China and Southeast Asia. Palaeozoic terranes are also found in eastern Australia, southern New Guinea, the Lord Howe Rise, Campbell Plateau and West Antarctica. In Sundaland, there was episodic accretion of terranes onto a Palaeozoic core, starting in the Middle Triassic when the Sibumasu terrane docked. Palaeogene terranes include continental fragments and an island arc system, parts of which collided with New Guinea and became accreted onto the Australian foreland. Neogene tectonics in Wallacea is dominated by the collision of the Australian craton with Sundaland and the Pacific plate. The analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of life in the Indonesian-west Pacific region described herein is by necessity an integrative process.
