Satellite radar interpretation of the Bintuni Basin area, Eastern Vogelkop Peninsula, West Irian, Indonesia

Abstract

A synoptic view of radar images enables deduction of the regional structural setting which is often not possible from aerial photographs and/or fieldwork only. An interpretation is made of part of a Shuttle Imaging Radar strip of the eastern Vogelkop Peninsula (Jazirah Doberai). The principal structural units that can be distinguished are 1. the Paleozoic igneous metamorphic complex, including the Kemoem Formation, 2. the principal Mesozoic/Tertiary central Vogelkop monocline,3. the northern extension of the Cretaceous/Tertiary Lengguru fold belt, and 4. the Tertiary Bintuni Basin area. The abutment of the E-W running central Vogelkop monocline against the NNW-SSE running Lengguru fold belt appears to be fault-controlled. Also the Bintuni Basin seems to be controlled by faults that parallel the monoclinal structure on the northern and southern sides of the radar image, and by faults parallel to the Lengguru fold belt on the eastern side. The anomalous fold direction of the Imskin anticline is a surface expression of block movements along these faults.