The Bantimala Complex of South Sulawesi, Indonesia is an assemblage of northeastdipping tectonically stacked slices. The slices consist mainly of high pressure metamorphic rocks, radiolarian chert, breccia, sandstone and shale, and melange. In order to understand the tectonic evolution of the Bantimala Complex, we have investigated the lithology, age, stratigraphy, structure and relationships of the components. The K-Ar ages of high P-low T metamorphic rocks suggest that an oceanic plate subducted beneath the Sundaland continent during the Late Jurassic or earliest Cretaceous. The subduction ceased during the Albian, and the high pressure schists were exhumed and eroded at the surface before and during the deposition of middle Cretaceous radiolarian chert. The exhumation of the schists was related to the collision of microcontinents derived from Gondwanaland. The Jurassic shallow marine sedimentary rocks in the Bantimala Complex are possibly remnant fragments of the collided microcontinent. Tectonic stacking of the Bantimala Complex was caused by Neogene subduction and collision of another continental fragment further to the east.

The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) is the leakage of western tropical Pacific water into the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean through the Indonesian seas. The ITF is an important pathway for the transfer of climate signals and their anomalies around the world's oceans. While the heat and fresh water carried by the ITF are known to affect the basin budgets of both the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the magnitude and vertical distribution of the ITF are not well known, giving little guidance to the initialization and validation of ocean circulation and climate models. In response to this lack of knowledge, the International Nusantara Stratification and Transport (INSTANT) program was established to directly measure the ITF Scientists from Indonesia, France, Netherlands, United States, and Australia make up the collaborative INSTANT partnership.

Cretaceous subduction complexes surround the southeastern margin of Sundaland in Indonesia. They are widely exposed in several localities, such as Bantimala (South Sulawesi), Karangsambung (Central Java) and Meratus (South Kalimantan). The Meratus Complex of South Kalimantan consists mainly of mélange, chert, siliceous shale, limestone, basalt, ultramafic rocks and schists. The complex is uncomformably covered with Late Cretaceous sedimentary‐volcanic formations, such as the Pitap and Haruyan Formations. Well‐preserved radiolarians were extracted from 14 samples of siliceous sedimentary rocks, and K–Ar age dating was performed on muscovite from 6 samples of schist of the Meratus Complex. The radiolarian assemblage from the chert of the complex is assigned to the early Middle Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. The K–Ar age data from schist range from 110 Ma to 180 Ma. Three samples from the Pitap Formation, which unconformably covers the Meratus Complex, yield Cretaceous radiolarians of Cenomanian or older. These chronological data as well as field observation and petrology yield the following constraints on the tectonic setting of the Meratus Complex. (1) The mélange of the Meratus Complex was caused by the subduction of an oceanic plate covered by radiolarian chert ranging in age from early Middle Jurassic to late Early Cretaceous. (2) The Haruyan Schist of 110–119 Ma was affected by metamorphism of a high pressure–low temperature type caused by oceanic plate subduction. Some of the protoliths were high alluminous continental cover or margin sediments. Intermediate pressure type metamorphic rocks of 165 and 180 Ma were discovered for the first time along the northern margin of the Haruyan Schist. (3) The Haruyan Formation, a product of submarine volcanism in an immature island arc setting, is locally contemporaneous with the formation of the mélange of the Meratus Complex.

High‐pressure metamorphic rocks are exposed in Karangsambung area of central Java, Indonesia. They form part of a Cretaceous subduction complex (Luk–Ulo Complex) with fault‐bounded slices of shale, sandstone, chert, basalt, limestone, conglomerate and ultrabasic rocks. The most abundant metamorphic rock type are pelitic schists, which have yielded late Early Cretaceous K–Ar ages. Small amounts of eclogite, glaucophane rock, garnet–amphibolite and jadeite–quartz–glaucophane rock occur as tectonic blocks in sheared serpentinite. Using the jadeite–garnet–glaucophane–phengite–quartz equilibrium, peak pressure and temperature of the jadeite–quartz–glaucophane rock are P = 22 ± 2 kbar and T = 530 ± 40 °C. The estimated P–T conditions indicate that the rock was subducted to ca 80 km depth, and that the overall geothermal gradient was ∼ 7.0 °C/km. This rock type is interpreted to have been generated by the metamorphism of cold oceanic lithosphere subducted to upper mantle depths. The exhumation from the upper mantle to lower or middle crustal depths can be explained by buoyancy forces. The tectonic block is interpreted to be combined with the quartz–mica schists at lower or middle crustal depths.

The Bantimala Complex of South Sulawesi consists mainly of mklange, chert, basalt, ultramafic rocks and high pressure type metamorphic rocks. Well-preserved radiolarians were extracted from 10 samples of chert, and K-Ar age dating was done for muscovite from five samples of schist of the Bantimala Complex. The radiolarian assemblage from chert is assigned middle Cretaceous (late Albian-early Cenomanian) age, while the K-Ar age data from schist range from 132 Ma to 114 Ma except for one sample with rare muscovite. The radiolarian chert is unconformably underlain by schist in the Bantimala Complex. The stratigraphic relationship and the time lag of these two kinds of age data from chert and underlying schist suggest short-time tectonic events immediately followed by a quick waning tectonism in this region during the Albian-Cenomanian transgression.