Implication of the Mobile Belt of the Indies Archipelago on the Concept of Continental Drift Between India and Australia

The Indies mobile belt stretching from northern Burma through the Indonesian to the Australasian archipelagoes is essentially Upper Mesozoic-Cainozoic in age. It is intercontinental in a sense that it is situated between the continents of India and Australia on one side and Sino-Sunda continent on the other, but essentially intracontinental because subsurface continuity of the continental mass and pre-geosynclinal sedimentary formations can be envisaged between the two sectors of continental mass below the geosyncline.

Studies of the geology of the various parts of the Indonesian mobile belt especially the transverse vertical gelogical cross sections of various segments of the belt in Assam-Burma, Andaman-Nicobar, Mentawal-Sumatra and Australasian sectors, suggest spatial continuity of the continental crust and pre-geosynclinal geological formations below the Upper-Mesozoic-Cainozoic geosynclinal formations of the mobile belt.

Absence of any imprint on the Indonesian mobile belt expected due to continental drift between India and Australia corroborates the view of the non-existence of such continental drift.