Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic tectonics of the Malay Peninsula constrained by thermochronology

• Thermochronology records the thermal history of the Malay Peninsula.
• 40Ar/39Ar analyses indicate thermal perturbation in the Cretaceous and Eocene.
• (U–Th)/He analyses record exhumation in the Cretaceous and Paleogene.
• Cretaceous tectonism reflects the cessation of subduction at the Sundaland margin.
• Neogene exhumation reflects transpression and the resumption of subduction.

New thermochronological analyses of granites from the Malay Peninsula record the region’s thermal history during the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic. 40Ar/39Ar and (U–Th–Sm)/He analyses are combined with existing fission track data to provide a comprehensive set of temperature and time data. Fully and partially reset K-feldspar and biotite mica 40Ar/39Ar analyses indicate a significant period of thermal perturbation between ∼100 and ∼90 Ma, and a second lesser perturbation between ∼51 and ∼43 Ma. Zircon (U–Th–Sm)/He analyses and existing fission track data indicate exhumation of the Malay Peninsula in the Cretaceous, and renewed, localised exhumation in the early Paleogene. Apatite (U–Th–Sm)/He and fission track data indicate rapid exhumation of the region in the Late Eocene and Oligocene. Late Cretaceous tectonism is linked to the reversal of a regional dynamic topographic low following the cessation of subduction along the Sundaland margin in the Late Cretaceous, causing regional uplift and exhumation and the addition of significant heat into the crust via mantle upwelling. Early Paleogene exhumation may reflect the continuation of Cretaceous tectonism or a discrete phase of Paleocene exhumation linked to localised transpressional tectonics. Eocene tectonism is coincident with major subsidence offshore of the Malay Peninsula, interpreted to reflect regional block faulting in response to north–south compression driven by the resumption of subduction along the southern margin of Sundaland in the Eocene.