Page 15 - Sumatra Geology, Resources and Tectonic Evolution

2 CHAPTER 1

elo I' '' /
ANDAACEH 1 O0 ~ 101" 106 ~ 108 ~
~.~
0 South China Sea
% ,,,atun ,o

1MEDAN %
/ o~
~'..
/ 2~ "Anfimbas
I ~ Is

'/--.SINGAPORE 9 Tambelan
.o~, Is
9 PEKAN BARU Riau Is

Batu
Sunda Shelf

\ \
% 2 ~
Indian BILLIT ON
Ocean SO UTI--~ )" k,, (,. /.,

/
BENGKULU /
J Ao
t <o0o

9 Active Volcanoes I Java Sea
BANDAR LAMPUNG
,and over 000m
Land 1000-2000m
Land 100-1000m Krakato~
Land below 100m
Submarine contours in metres
0 1 O0 200 300 400 500km
-- ---- Provincial boundaries

96 ,, 98 ~ 100 ~ 102" 104" 106" " 108"
I I I I I I
Fig. 1.1. Topography and bathymetry of Sumatra and surrounding areas with boundaries of administrative provinces and principal cities.

work carried out in Siberut, Nias and Simeulue and the other Outer but after the war this official refused to return it (van Bemmelen
Arc Islands on behalf of the Nederlands Pacific Petroleum 1949, 1970). On his release from captivity van Bemmelen returned
Maatschappij and the Geological Service of the Baatafsche to the Netherlands, where he was commissioned to rewrite
Petroleum Maatschappij before WWII (Elber 1939; Den Hartog the volume by the Director of the Netherlands East Indies
1940a, b; Hopper 1940), were made available to van Bemmelen Bureau of Mines. Work commenced in 1946 and the first edition
(1949, 1970) during the preparation of his major synthesis of was published by the Government Printing Office in the Hague
'The Geology of Indonesia'. in 1949. A second edition was published in 1970. The volume
Van Bemmelen began work on this comprehensive and masterly provides a complete summary of the state of knowledge of the
summary, immediately before WWII. The first manuscript version stratigraphy, structure, igneous history and mineral deposits of
of this work was completed in Bandung between 1937 and 1941. the whole of Indonesia at that time. For Sumatra, van Bemmelen
When Java was invaded by the Japanese in 1942 van Bemmelen (1949, 1970) developed a tectonic synthesis in which deformation
was taken into custody as a prisoner of war. There are reports proceeded as a series of waves, across the island from NE to
that during the war he was permitted by the Japanese authorities SW, with the earliest cycle having occurred in the Malay
to continue work on the volume. Van Bemmelen says that he Peninsula during the Triassic, and the most recent continuing in
entrusted his manuscript to an official of the Geological Survey, the outer arc islands at the present day.