View source for Earth:Molucca Sea Collision Zone

{{Short description|Region of complex tectonic activity in Indonesia}}
{{onesource|date=December 2019}}
The '''Molucca Sea Collision Zone''' is postulated by paleogeologists to explain the [[Earth:Tectonics|tectonics]] of the area based on the Molucca Sea in Indonesia, and adjacent involved areas.

==Tectonics==
The tectonic relationship of the [[Earth:Sangihe Plate|Sangihe Plate]], [[Earth:Halmahera Plate|Halmahera Plate]], and the [[Earth:Molucca Sea Plate|Molucca Sea Plate]], plus the volcanic [[Earth:Halmahera Arc|Halmahera Arc]] and the Sangihe Arc is complex.  Their interrelationship constitutes the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. The north of this zone interlinks with the [[Earth:Philippine Mobile Belt|Philippine Mobile Belt]]. Some call this linkage the Philippine–Halmahera Arc and consider it an integral part of the elongated zone of convergence extending north through the {{wipe|Philippines}} into eastern Taiwan. In the Molucca Sea Collision Zone model, the Molucca Sea Plate has been totally consumed by the arc-arc collision of the Halmahera Arc and the Sangihe Arc of eastern Indonesia.<ref> Macpherson, Forde, Hall and Thirlwall (2003) in ''Intra-Oceanic Subduction Systems: Tectonic and Magmatic Processes'', {{ISBN|1-86239-147-5}} p208 </ref>

==Single collision zones==
The magmatic systems are reaching the end of their life as island arcs and are becoming a single collision zone,<ref>Colin G Macpherson et ors, '''Geochemical evolution of magmatism in an arc-arc collision: the Halmahera and Sangihe arcs, eastern Indonesia''', in Robert D Larter, ed, (2003) ''Intra-oceanic Subduction Systems'', Geological Society of London. p208</ref> lending weight to the contention that Halmahera and Sangihe should be regarded as tectonic plates rather than volcanic arcs.

==Northern extension==
Seismic and tomographic discrepancies in the mantle up to 400 km below Mindanao in the Philippines, indicate it is a more advanced northern extension of the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. <ref>Colin G Macpherson et ors, '''Geochemical evolution of magmatism in an arc-arc collision: the Halmahera and Sangihe arcs, eastern Indonesia''', in Robert D Larter, ed, (2003) ''Intra-oceanic Subduction Systems'', Geological Society of London. p215</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Geology of the Pacific Ocean]]
[[Category:Volcanic belts]]

{{Sourceattribution|Molucca Sea Collision Zone}}