Abstract:
The Sunda Shelf, one of the world's largest low-latitude continental shelves, plays an important role in bridging the Asian continent and equatorial ocean systems, regulating tropical climate dynamics and sediment-mass transport. Its eastern region preserved exceptionally complete Cenozoic strata that systematically documented frequent vertical alternations between terrestrial and marine depositional systems. This succession formed a critical archive for investigating sedimentary evolution and paleo-environmental changes across the Sunda Shelf. However, the seismic stratigraphy of this region remains poorly constrained, resulting in poorly understanding of basin-internal seismic characteristics and depositional evolutionary processes. We adopted high-resolution 2D seismic reflection data (~
12000 km,
80000 km
2) to identify key stratigraphic interface, analyzed conduct seismic-to-sedimentary facies, and established the regional seismic stratigraphic framework, based on which the Cenozoic infill history and tectonic evolution were clarified. Eight major seismic horizons (H0-seabed), seven seismic stratigraphic units (SU1-SU7), and 10 typical seismic facies representing terrestrial and marine facies were identified from the Late Eocene to present. The analysis of seismic stratigraphy and seismic facies showed that the Eastern Sunda Shelf experienced four evolutionary phases: Syn-rift (SU1: Late Eocene-Early Oligocene), Post-rift (SU2: Late Oligocene-Early Miocene), Syn-inversion (SU3: Early-Late Miocene), and Post-inversion (SU4-SU7: Late Miocene-present). Deposition was jointly controlled by tectonics and eustasy: SU1-SU3 was controlled by regional tectonic transformation. The study area underwent an evolutionary process from rifting and faulting, stable thermal subsidence, to compressional transition. Meanwhile, the depositional environment transitioned from terrestrial to shallow marine. In contrast, the formation of SU4-SU7 was closely linked to an extensive sea-level fall event. Their depositional environment evolved from shallow-marine to bathyal sea into fluvial-deltaic sedimentation. The established seismic stratigraphic framework resolved the depositional-tectonic evolution of the Eastern Sunda Shelf, and provided key constraints to the paleo-climate reconstruction and future site selection of international ocean drilling.