Paleostress and strike slip movement: the Cimandiri Fault Zone, West Java, Indonesia

N. DARDJI*, T. VILLEMIN** and J.P. RAMPNOUX*


* Laboratoire de Géologie Structurale et Appliquée, Université de Savoie, B.P. 1104, 73011 Chambéry Cedex, France.
** Laboratoire de Géodynamique, Université de Savoie, B.P. 1104, 73011 Chambéry Cedex, France.


Abstract ­ About 350 faults and slickenlines have been measured in the western part of the Cimandiri Fault Zone on Java Island. This fault zone trends N70°E and corresponds to the limit of Southern Mountains and Cimandiri-Bandung area. The data used in this study are mostly microfaults which range in length from a few centimeters to a few meters.
On the basis of fault slip data, orientations of paleostresses have been computed. Four strike-slip fault regimes have been identified. Normal faulting seems to be associated with strike-slip regimes.
Our results of paleostress reconstruction using fault data from Cimandiri Fault Zone support the hypothesis of stress reorientation along a major strike-slip fault (Anderson 1951). The paleostress directions enable us to deduce the main fault movement. The Cimandiri Fault Zone is interpreted as a sinistral strike-slip fault zone. The dynamic model initiated by Anderson (1951) and modified by Price and Cosgrove (1990) explains the Cenozoic paleostress succession in the Cimandiri Fault.

INTRODUCTION

The west Indoesian island arc results from the interaction between Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates. In the Sunda arc (Fig. 1) one may distinguish from the south to the north: (1) the Indian Ocean Basin, (2) the Java Trench, (3) the Java-Sumatra Outer Arc, partly submerged south of Java and represented by the archipelago of Mentawai, southwest of Sumatra, (4) the magmatic arc of Java-Sumatra and (5) the foreland basin of the Sunda continental shelf represented by the Java Sea (Hamilton 1979). The Great Sumatran dextral strikeslip fault is a major tectonic feature of the region (Katili and Hehuwat 1967, Hamilton 1979). This fault induced a pull-apart graben in the Sunda strait (Haryono 1988). The area of this study is located eastward of the transitional zone between the frontal subduction of Java and the oblique subduction zone of Sumatra (Fig. 1).
Four distinct morphological and structural units can be distinguished in West Java (van Bemmelen 1949, Fig. 1), which are, from the north to the south: (1) the Northern Coastal Plain of West Java, (2) the folded mountains of Bogor, (3) the Bandung Zone mostly covered by recent olcanic products and (4) the Southern Mountains of West Java.
The boundary between the Bandung Zone and the Southern Mountains trends N70°E from the Gulf of Pelabuhanratu to the Bandung area. This boundary is the Cimandiri Fault Zone (van Bemmelen 1949, Martodjojo 1984). It acted as a paleogeographical and structural boundary during Cenozoic times (Martodjojo 1984). Evidence for the continuation of this fault zone east of Bandung is lacking (van Bemmelen 1949). Hamilton (1979) has identified in the Java Sea a structural zone that connects the Cimandiri Fault Zone to the Meratus Mountains south-east of Kalimantan (Fig. 1). Numerous faults and folds can be observed near the fault zone (Sukamto 1975). The aims of this study are (1) to reconstruct the paleostress fields using fault-slip data and (2) to analyse the movement along the major fault and its implications.

Fig.7 : Schematic illustration of the changes in maximum principal stress (s1) directions in the active segments according to time (T1, T2, T3), respectively. Stress trajectories adapted from the Anderson (1951) model. (1) Active fault ; (2) Inactive fault.

Journal of Southeast Asian Earth Sci., 9, n° 1 -2, p. 3-11.

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