A feature of this terrane is that it hosts the Western Granite
Province of SE Asia (Mitchell, 1977; Cobbing et al., 1992; Charusiri
et al., 1993; Putthapiban, 2002). Insofar as those granite (sensu lato)
intrusions are largely confined to the Phuket-Slate Belt terrane it
raises the question: is that because the terrane in some way
favoured the intrusion of those plutons, or were they intruded over
a wider area and then isolated in the terrane by strike-slip faulting
which displaced both terrane and intrusions?
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the existence of the
Phuket-Slate Belt terrane northward from Thailand into Myanmar,
to comment on its relations with the Western Granite Province of
SE Asia, and to suggest how the terrane was emplaced in its present
position. It is tentatively suggested that dextral strike-slip
movement on its eastern boundary-fault occurred in the Late
Cretaceous–Palaeogene when the terrane became coupled with
the north-going India plate, ceasing only after India itself had
collided with Eurasia. It is suggested, furthermore, that a later
phase of cross-cutting sinistral strike-slip faulting resulted in the
outline of the terrane we see today.