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1 Department of Geology, Birkbeck College London, Gresse Street, London W1P IPA, UK
2 Department of Geological Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
3 Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Field evidence from Upper Palaeozoic and Mesozoic strata exposed in Peninsular Malaysia demonstrates that the structural style, degree and orientation of folding, axial-plane cleavage, and faulting in the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks of the central basin are remarkably similar. In contrast, the Upper Palaeozoic strata, especially the Carboniferous rocks exposed in the eastern part of the peninsula, show multiple phase folding and regional metamorphism unlike anything seen in the Mesozoic rocks. These observations demonstrate that two important compressional events affected Peninsular Malaysia, one in Late Permian times and the other in the mid- to late Cretaceous. The Late Palaeozoic compressional event was a major orogenic mountain building phase with associated emplacement of major Permo–Triassic granite plutons that form the eastern and main ranges. No indications were found of the widely reported Triassic orogenic compression. The palaeotectonic and palaeogeographical implications of these discoveries are important for interpreting the evolution of eastern Gondwana and Tethys.
The Raub–Bentong line was an important fault zone active during the Mesozoic but does not appear to have been a major tectonic suture since the Late Palaeozoic. We postulate that the Permo–Triassic granites of the eastern belt and those presently exposed in the main range were originally about 30–50 km apart, and that Triassic and Jurassic crustal attenuation and subsidence led to the separation of these two granitic belts by more than 100 km.
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