Earth Sciences Student Seminar: Romana Dew

Presenter

Romana Dew
PhD Student - Earth Sciences
The University of Adelaide

Abstract

Piecing parts of Thailand into the world's palaeogeographic puzzle

The progressive development and destruction of the Tethys Oceans, with the northward movement of Gondwana-derived terranes in the Phanerozoic, resulted in the landmasses of Southeast Asia that we recognise today.  However, there is still little known about the precise location of the boundaries, the nature of the basement, relative palaeopositions and source region characteristics of the associated sediments, especially in Thailand.

This research focusses on unravelling the tectonic evolution and palaeogeography of the three Thai terranes: Indochina, Sukhothai and Sibumasu. It uses an interdisciplinary approach to uncover Thailand's past, coupling disparate geological disciplines from palaeontology and sedimentology of the SW margin of Indochina to Thailand-wide igneous geochemistry and detrital geochronology. This study highlights that the three Thai terranes are three distinct tectonic domains with complex and individual tectonic journeys.

Understanding the history of the Thai terranes is critical to understanding the tectono-geographical link between Southeast Asia and Australia, especially their potential positions within Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic.