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CONTRASTING PROTOLITHS OF CRETACEOUS METAMORPHIC ROCKS FROM

THE LUK ULO ACCRETIONARY WEDGE COMPLEX OF CENTRAL JAVA,
INDONESIA

Ade Kadarusman1), Haryadi Permana2), Hans-Joachim Massonne3), Herman van Roermund4),

Munasri2), Bambang Priadi5)
1)
Mining & Exploration Department, PT Inco Tbk, Sorowako, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
2)
Research Centre for Geotechnology, LIPI, Jl. Sangkuriang, Bandung 40135, Indonesia
3)
Institut fuer Mineralogie und Kristallchemie, Universitaet Stuttgart, Azenbergstrasse 18, Germany
4)
Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3508, The Netherlands
5)
Department of Geology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung, Indonesia
Ade.Kadarusman@valeinco.com

ABSTRACT

Rocks of the Lok Ulo Accretionary Complex crop out over a small (<100 km2) area in the
Karangsambung residency of Central Java. They are part of Cretaceous accretionary wedge complexes in
Central Indonesia, which are distributed sporadically in an arc extending from southwest and central Java
to southeast Kalimantan and southern Sulawesi. The Lok Ulo complex consists of various types of rocks
occurring as tectonic slabs in a black-shale matrix tectonic melange. The slabs are composed of a
dismembered ophiolite, sedimentary rocks, and crystalline schists and gneisses.

The metamorphic rocks have two different kinds of protoliths and differ in P-T evolution as well. The
first group (called `oceanic plate protolith') consists of fine-grained metabasites with metapelitic
intercalations ranging from greenschist to amphibolite facies. High-pressure rocks such as eclogite,
partially containing lawsonite and tourmaline, jadeite-glaucophane schist and blueschist crop out in a thin
zone between the low-grade schists and a serpentinite zone along Kali Muncar. They are associated with a
succession of metabasalt, serpentinite, chert and red limestone as common constituents of an ophiolite.
The second group (called `continental crustal protolith') consists of low to high grade medium pressure
metapelites, calc-silicate rocks, and metagranites (gneisses, quartzites, marbles, felsic granulites), and
minor bimodal low grade metavolcanic. These rocks are presumably associated with a monotonous
sequence of metapelites from the chlorite zone up to the garnet zone exposed in the northern and eastern
part of the Karangsambung area (e.g. Kali Loning).

Our findings suggest that the metamorphic rocks from the Lok Ulo complex are not the simple result of
subduction metamorphism along the Indo-Australian oceanic plate (margin of the Sundaland craton) in
the early Cretaceous as previously thought. The observed presence of low to high grade schists and
gneisses of continental supracrustal parentage point to an early involvement of continental crust during
the collisional event at least in the Karangsambung area (eastern part of the subduction zone).

INTRODUCTION are distributed sporadically in an arc extending

The Lok Ulo Accretionary Complex (e.g., Wakita,
2000) crops out over a small (<100 km2) area
near the village of Karangsambung in Central
Java (Figure 1). This complex is part of a belt
characterized by several Cretaceous accretionary
– collision complex in Central Indonesia, which
from southwest and central Java, to southeast
Kalimantan and southern Sulawesi.
The Lok Ulo Complex involves an assemblage of
E–W trending tectonic blocks. They consist of
various types of rocks occurring as tectonic slabs
in a black-shale matrix mélange (Asikin, 1974;
 PROCEEDING PIT IAGI LOMBOK 2010
The 39th IAGI Annual Convention and Exhibition
Ketner et al., 1976; Suparka, 1988; Wakita et al.,
1991; Wakita et al., 1994)). The slabs are
composed of a chaotic mixture of dismembered
ophiolite, volcanic rocks, sedimentary rocks, high-
pressure (HP) metamorphic rocks as well as
ordinary crystalline schists and gneisses. The
complex is unconformably overlain by the Eocene
Karangsambung Formation. Relationships among
the rocks are unclear. The ages of chert
components range from Jurassic to Late
Cretaceous (Wakita et al., 1994). Micas from
schists yielded age ranging between 110 and 117
Ma (Ketner et al., 1976; Miyazaki et al., 1998).
The presence of metamorphic rocks in the Lok-
Ulo Complex has been known for more than half
a century. Surprisingly, limited detailed studies
have been undertaken on these rocks except the
study of HP metamorphic rocks such a jadeite-
glaucophane rock by Miyazaki et al. (1998) and
recently by Kadarusman et al., (2007) for the P-T
Evolution of eclogites and blueschists. In addition,
general studies of metamorphic rocks from the
Lok Ulo complex were presented by Parkinson et
al. (1998) and Kadarusman et al. (2005). This
study focuses on all the various metamorphic
rocks types in the Lok Ulo Complex with
emphasize of protolith classification.
LOK ULO METAMORPHIC ROCKS
The geology of the Karangsambung area is
characterized by the Lok Ulo Complex which is
unconformably overlain by volcanic and
sedimentary rocks of the Eocene Karangsambung
Formation (Asikin et al., 1992). The rocks of this
formation and of Tertiary sequences, subdivided
into the Totogan, Waturanda, Penosogan and
Halang Formations in ascending order (Figure 1),
are gently folded with an east-west trending
vertical axial plane. The tectonic relationships
among the blocks (or slabs) of the Lok-Ulo
complex are unclear. Their long axes trend ENE-
WSW, parallel to the strike of the Waturanda and
Totogan Formations (Figure 1). Large tectonic
blocks, consisting of dismembered ophiolites
(Suparka, 1988), are distributed in the central part
of the Lok-Ulo Complex.
The best outcrops of the Lok Ulo Metamorphic
Complex, which are associated with dismembered
ophiolite, are along the Muncar and Gua Rivers
(Figure 2). They consist of HP rocks of eclogites,
glaucophane rock and blueschist, and medium
pressure rocks such as garnet amphibolite and
greenschist. The dismembered ophiolite
composed of basalt, gabbro/diabase, serpentinite,
chert and red limestone; they are actually
undergone ocean floor or hydrothermal
metamorphism of low pressure and low
temperature condition.
We collected samples from loose blocks of
eclogite, glaucophane rock, blueschist, greenschist
and amphibolite occurring close to serpentinite
and ophiolitic rocks along the Muncar and Gua
river. Therefore, it is inferred that these block
were once included within the serpentinite. The
blocks are variable in size from 30 cm up to 5 m.
In the Muncar river, eclogite blocks are dominant
over blocks of blueschist and glaucophane rock,
however, in the Gua river it is vice versa. The
collected HP metabasic rocks were divided into
four groups: (I) tourmaline-bearing eclogite
(TEC), (II) normal eclogite without tourmaline
(EC), (III) glaucophane rock (GR), and (IV)
blueschist (BS) (Kadarusman et al, 2007).
Study by Kadarusman et al. (2005) and also this
study confirmed that the metamorphic rocks from
Lok Ulo Complex do not only consist of HP
metamorphic rocks as describe above, but also of
very low to low grade as well as medium grade
low-pressure metabasites and metapelites.
Amphibolite-facies schists (predominantly garnet-
mica schists) are tectonically intercalated within
sediments of larger tectonic blocks (Figure 2). The
Lok Ulo Complex may also include continental
material from deeper crustal levels found as loose
blocks along the Lok-Ulo, Loning and Lokidang
rivers. This material consists of metamorphosed
coarse grained pelitic, calc-silicate and granitic
rocks (gneisses, migmatite, quartzites, marbles,
felsic granulites) as well as minor bimodal
metavolcanics (Figure 2).
MINERAL ASSEMBLAGES AND P-T
ESTIMATION
The mineral assemblages of HP metabasic rocks
and very low to low grade as well as medium
grade low-pressure metabasites and metapelites
are shown in Figure 3. The mineral chemistry of
selected rocks are shown in Figure 4. Presence of
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granulite and granitic gneiss as lower-medium
crustal constituents (continental crustal protoliths)
are first ever reported in Karangsambung. This is
proven that continental materials are present in
Karang Sambung area.
P-T estimates for various rocks of the Lok Ulo
Accretionary Complex are shown in Figure 5. The
underlying petrogenetic grid is based on that by
Maruyama et al. (1996). Geothermobarometric
calculations were achieved with PTGIBBS
(Brandelik & Massonne, 2004) using
thermodynamic relations of mineral phases and
components as well as specific mineral equilibria.
In addition various other geothermobarometric
methods were applied (Brown,1977; Maruyama et
al.,1986; Graham & Powell, 1984; Kohn &
Spear,1989). Detail P-T calculation obtained from
Kadarusman et al, (2005 & 2007) and also
unpublished data from Kadarusman (2005) that
showed the granitic gneisses estimation were
metamorphosed at T = 580 -620 °C and P = 5-6
kbar.
The petrological studies concerned of HP rock
types (eclogite and blueschist) showing mineral
assemblages with jadeite and lawsonite (Miyazaki
et al., 1998; Parkinson et al., 1998) and
tourmaline (Kadarusman et al., 2007). P-T
evolution for those rocks showed five stages of
metamorphic phase (Kadarusman et al., 2007).
The early metamorphic stage (stage I) of the Lok
Ulo eclogites comprises garnet (core) and
omphacite + Ca-Na amphibole + phengite + rutile
+ epidote inclusions in the garnet core. Stage II is
characterized by garnet (rims of porphyroblasts) +
omphacite + rutile + phengite + Ca-Na amphibole.
The matrix constituents, which are similar to those
of stages I and II, are related to stage III (late or
‘peak’ eclogitic stage). The blueschist overprint of
the eclogites occurred during stage IV. The
corresponding assemblage is Na amphibole +
chlorite + albite + epidote + quartz + titanite +
ilmenite. Subsequently, poikiloblastic tourmaline
and apatite grew at the expense of chlorite,
epidote and other minerals in some eclogites
(stage V).
The P-T path of eclogites is characterized by
rising pressures at decreasing temperatures (stage
I to stage III: P=22.5 kbar and T=365 °C),
whereas the normal eclogites show rising
temperatures at increasing pressure (stage III:
P=20.5 kbar and T=410 °C). Thus, these eclogites
were subducted to ~70 km depth at a geothermal
gradient of ~6 C/km. Stage IV is limited to the P-
T range of 8-10 kbar and 350-400 °C for both
eclogite types. The different P-T paths
(counterclock-wise and clock-wise) are explained
by metamorphism within a subduction channel.
The low geothermal gradient is probably due to a
high rate of subduction of a cold oceanic plate.
Eclogites show a clockwise P-T path. Their
blueschist assemblage overprint (retrograde path)
is consistent with P-T estimations on mineral
assemblages from blueschist blocks and
barroisite-bearing calc-silicates. Garnet
amphibolite, greenschist, mica-schist and granitic
gneiss show various low to medium pressure
metamorphic grades. This is confirmed by P-T
estimations showing that the metamorphic rocks
from the Lok Ulo Accretionary Complex have
experienced different P-T evolutions. As a major
consequence of this they must have been part of
different plate tectonic settings.
DISSCUSSION ON THE PROTOLITHS
The metamorphic rocks from the Lok Ulo
Accretionary Complex can be assigned to various
protoliths (see Figure 6), in regards to active and
passive continental margins). Our investigations
already show that the metamorphic rocks have
two different kinds of protoliths and differ in P-T
evolution as well.
The first group (called `oceanic plate protolith')
consists of fine-grained metabasites with
metapelitic intercalations ranging from
greenschist to amphibolite facies. High-pressure
rocks such as eclogite, partially containing
lawsonite and tourmaline, jadeite-glaucophane
schist and blueschist crop out in a thin zone
between the low-grade schists and a serpentinite
zone along Kali Muncar. They are associated with
a succession of metabasalt, serpentinite, chert and
red limestone as common constituents of an
ophiolite. The ‘oceanic plate protoliths’ concern
metabasites with metapelitic intercalations
ranging from greenschists to amphibolites. The
rare HP rocks such as eclogite, jadeite-
glaucophane schist, and blueschist as well as the
succession of metabasalt, serpentinite, chert and
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red limestone as common constituent of an
ophiolite can be related to these protoliths.
The second group (called `continental crustal
protolith') consists of low to high grade medium
pressure metapelites, calc-silicate rocks, and
metagranites (gneisses, quartzites, marbles, felsic
granulites), and minor bimodal low grade
metavolcanic. These rocks are presumably
associated with a monotonous sequence of
metapelites from the chlorite zone up to the garnet
zone exposed in the northern and eastern part of
the Karangsambung area (e.g. Loning river). The
presence of continental crustal protoliths, which
are now metamorphosed pelitic, calc-silicate and
granitic rocks (gneisses, quartzites, marbles, felsic
granulites) including minor bimodal
metavolcanics suggest that the metamorphic rock
from Lok Ulo complex are not the simple result of
accretion and subduction-related metamorphism
along the Indo-Australian oceanic plate (margin of
the Sundaland craton) in the early Cretaceous as
previously thought. The observed presence of
rocks of continental supracrustal parentage can be
explained either by fragmentation of the
accretionary wedge in a melange zone due to
major strike-slip acting in the past or to the
relatively early collision of the Sundaland margin
with continental crust (Australian plate).
The remaining problem in case of the Lok-Ulo
Complex is why the deeply subducted eclogites
were finally mixed with rocks (e.g., dismembered
ophiolite) which apparently have never
experienced high pressures. The exposed rocks
rather point to a melange zone which was located
not too deep in the Earth. Thus, it is likely that
rocks of a former subduction channel environment
(those which were at a specific time relatively
close to the surface) and near surface rocks were
intensively tectonically mixed. This mixing
should have happened at low temperatures in the
presence of hydrous fluids to explain the
estimated maximum temperatures of some rocks
of the melange (T < 400°C) and the disintegration
of the various rock units (formation of tectonic
blocks) and partially intense retrogression (e.g.,
along block surfaces). The reason for the
formation of the melange zone in the Cretaceous
is, however, a matter of speculation. Nevertheless,
it is very likely that the corresponding tectonics
happened along a convergent margin where
oceanic crust was subducted below a continental
plate.
CONCLUSIONS
Various metamorphic rock types are present in the
Lok Ulo Accretionary Complex. Our
investigations show that the metamorphic rocks
have experienced quite contrasting P-T
evolutions. HP metamorphic rocks (oceanic plate
protoliths) have experienced peak P-T conditions
of 360-400°C close to 20 kbar, whereas granitic
gneisses (continental crustal protoliths) were
metamorphosed at T = 580 -620 °C and P = 5-6
Kbar. This is confirmed by P-T estimations
showing that the metamorphic rocks from the Lok
Ulo Accretionary Complex have experienced
different P-T evolutions. As a major consequence
of this they must have been part of different plate
tectonic settings.
REFERENCES
Asikin, S., 1974, The geological evolution of
central Java and vicinity in the light of the
new global tectonics: PhD Thesis,
Bandung Institute of Technology, 256p.
(in Indonesian with English abstract).
Asikin, S., Harsolumakso, A. H., Busono, H., and
Gafoer, S., 1992, Geologic Map of
Kebumen Quadrangle, Java, scale 1 :
100.000: Geological Research and
Development Centre, Bandung.
Kadarusman, A., Massone, H.J., Permana, H.,
Munasri, 2005, Contrasting protoliths of
Cretaceous metamorphic rocks from the
Luk Ulo accretionary wedge complex of
Central Java, Indonesia, EOS,
Transactions, American Geophysical
Union (abstract).
Kadarusman, A., Massonne, H.J., van Roermund,
H., Permana, H., Munasri, 2007, P-T
Evolution of Eclogites and Blueschists
from the Luk Ulo Complex of Central
Java, Indonesia, International Geological
review, Volume 49, Number 4, 329-356.
Ketner, K. B., Kastowo, S., Modjo, C. W., Naeser,
H. D., Obradovich, K., Robinson, T.,
 PROCEEDING PIT IAGI LOMBOK 2010
The 39th IAGI Annual Convention and Exhibition
Suptandar, and Wikarno, 1976, Pre-Eocene
rocks of Java, Indonesia: Journal of
Research, United States Geological
Survey, v. 4, p. 605–614.
Maruyama, S., Liou, J. G., and Terabayashi, M.,
1996, Blueschists and Eclogite of the
World and Their Exhumation:
International Geology Review, v. 38, p.
485-594.
Miyazaki, K., Sopaheluwakan, J., Zulkarnain, I.,
and Wakita, K., 1998, Jadeite-quartz-
glaucophane rock from Karangsambung,
Central Java, Indonesia and its tectonic
implications: The Island Arc, v. 7, p. 223–
230.
Parkinson, C. D., Miyazaki, K., Wakita, K.,
Barber, A. J., and Carswell, D. A., 1998.
An overview and tectonic synthesis of the
pre-Tertiary very-high pressure
metamorphic and associated rocks of Java,
Sulawesi and Kalimantan, Indonesia:
Island Arc, v.7, p. 184-200.
Suparka, M. E., 1988, Study on petrology and
geochemistry of North Karangsambung
Ophiolite, Luh Ulo, Central Java: PhD
thesis, Institute of Technology in Bandung,
(In Indonesia with English abstract).
Wakita, K., 2000, Cretaceous accretionary-
collision complexes in central Indonesia:
Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, v. 18, p.
739–749.
Wakita, K., Munasri, and Widoyoko, B., 1991,
Nature and age of sedimentary rocks of the
Luk-Ulo Melange Complex in the
Karangsambung area, central Java,
Indonesia: Proceedings of the Silver
Jubilee Symposium, Dynamics of
Subduction and its Products, LIPI,
Yogyakara, p. 64–79.
Wakita K., Munasri and Widoyoko, B., 1994,
Cretaceous radiolarian from the Luk Ulo
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area, Central Java, Indonesia: Journal of
Southeast Asian Earth Sciences, v. 9, p.
29-43.
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Figure 1. Position of Central Indonesia Accretionary-Collision Complex as index map (upper

figure) and Geological Map of Karang Sambung region of Central Java (lower Figure).
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Figure 2. A series of photographs showing various sedimentary- (plate A), ophiolites- (plate B,
G), metamorphic- (plate C,D,E,F,H) rocks as tectonic block embedded in a black shale matrix
(Plate A).

Figure 3. Petrography and Mineral Assemblages Lok Ulo Metamoprhic Complex

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Figure 4. Mineral chemistry of selected metamorphic rocks

Figure 5. P-T estimates for various rocks of the Lok Ulo Metamorphic Rocks. The underslying
petrogenetic grade is based on that by Maruyama et al. (1996). See in the text further
explanation.
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Figure 6. Protolith classification of metamorphic rocks according to Maruyama et al, (1996) in

regards to active and passive continental margins.