Although the biota, facies, stacking patterns, sequence stratigraphy, and diagenesis of numerous isolated carbonate platforms have been described and interpreted, trends in the genesis, evolution, and sizes among Phanerozoic examples remain poorly quantified. To provide broad perspectives on Miocene isolated platforms of Central Luconia and Southeast Asia (the focus of this volume), this study summarizes the results of qualitative review of the literature and a quantitative analysis of a relational database of attributes in initiation, growth, character, and demise of more than 850 Phanerozoic isolated platforms. The data and comparisons among parameters reveal numerous trends, including observations that (1) syndepositional tectonics has been interpreted to play an important role in initiation, growth, or demise of more than 44% of isolated platforms; (2) tectonically active platforms are more likely to have higher aspect ratios (more elongate in plan-view and more squat in cross section); (3) stratal geometries are not distributed randomly in time (by era, p = 0.00, and by system, p = 0.04), although aggradational isolated platforms are most common within and among all eras (63% of all platforms); (4) sizes (area, long axis length), thicknesses, and aspect ratios (long axis:short axis; long axis:thickness) of isolated platforms are distinct among Phanerozoic platforms of different eras and systems; (5) although individual platforms steepen as they grow taller, syndepositional relief is not correlated (R 2 = 0.04) with depositional gradient among isolated platforms across the Phanerozoic; (6) causes of isolated platform termination vary nonrandomly through the Phanerozoic (by era, p = 0.00, and by system, p = 0.00). Of all eras, Cenozoic platforms are most likely to drown (68%), in some instances through an association with clastic influx (19%). Subaerial exposure more commonly contributed to the demise of Mesozoic (45%) and Paleozoic (37%) platforms than to that of Cenozoic (13%) platforms. These results, supplemented by more granular comparison of numerous individual platforms, compliment earlier syntheses that focus on the nature of secular changes. The insights suggest that although each platform is unique in many ways, Phanerozoic isolated carbonate platforms include numerous themes that are persistent across ages, sizes, settings, and component biota.

A new compilation of data suggests aragonitic coral reefs were already common in Southeast Asia by the mid-Oligocene. A gradual change from calcite to aragonite seas through the Oligocene and early Miocene appears to be related to a gradual expansion of the importance of scleractinia, along with green algae and mollusks, and an associated decline in the abundance of calcitic larger foraminifera. The larger foraminifera had been important rock-forming bioclasts in the early part of the early Miocene, but were a minor component of carbonate faunas by the end of the middle Miocene. This gradual decline in abundance included a few extinction events that reduced diversity, and these extinctions appear to correlate with periods of tectonic change. The K-selection evolutionary pressure impacted carbonate facies, but foraminifera maintained their taxonomic diversity until the abrupt faunal extinctions. Changes in sea-surface temperature, or the regional change from seasonal to ever-wet climate, do not appear to have impacted larger foraminiferal diversity or caused extinctions, only modified their latitudinal range. Some extinction events can be recognized across the whole Tethys Ocean, as can some of the times of tectonic activity and possible climate change. These correlations tentatively point to a link between large-scale changes in plate motion, oceanography, and foraminiferal extinctions. In contrast, the change from seasonal to ever-wet conditions around the Oligo–Miocene boundary around the South China Sea does not appear to have been caused by a wider tectonic event, and this event does not impact larger foraminifera diversity. A combined tectonic unconformity and mass extinction of larger foraminifera in middle middle Miocene times might have been due to the plate tectonic constriction of a throughflow between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

In Southeast Asia, Cenozoic carbonates commonly were initiated or terminated at times of tectonic change, and they are bound by unconformities. A review of the timing of several of the largest unconformities shows they correlate over wide areas. These unconformities divide the stratigraphic record of Sundaland into episodes, with times of rapid basinal re-adjustment separated by periods of relative stasis. These generalizations are true not only in the successions deposited during the dominantly extensional later Eocene to early Miocene, but also in the often-compressional middle Miocene and younger deposits, in which at least three phases of rapid tectonic and stratigraphic change can be correlated over multiple depocenters. A detailed review of many areas of Southeast Asia using quantitative biostratigraphic methods indicates that tectonism resulted in relative changes in sea level, with no indication that eustasy was an important driving force. The boundaries between these sedimentary episodes vary in their effect and distribution, depending upon the tectonic cause. As a consequence, there is no uniform subdivision of the stratigraphic record across the region, which precludes a simple Sundaland-wide classification of primary sedimentary sequences. This review concentrates on both event timing and rates of change within and between basins, especially those changes that initiated or terminated carbonate deposition. In addition, some short-lived carbonate buildups that developed during transitional periods are described. This review provides the beginnings of a new stratigraphic framework for the Cenozoic carbonates and related deposits of Southeast Asia. It requires an inductive analytical methodology, in contrast to the model-driven and deductive approaches that have been applied in recent years. This episodic stratigraphy approach includes integration of large amounts of analytical data, for which the Cenozoic tropical sediments of Southeast Asian basins are particularly well suited.