North Palawan Block
Appearance
North Palawan Block is a microcontinental block situated in the western Philippines and the southern tip of Manila Trench. The North Palawan block is considered to form the northeastern portion of a much larger area of block faulted and foundered pre-Tertiary continental material which extends throughout the southern part of the South China Sea Basin and includes the Spratley Islands and the Dangerous Grounds area off Borneo (Fig. 1) (Hamilton, 1979). The evidence for the continental composition of the crustof this area is substantial and has been reviewed by Hamilton (1979) and Taylor & Hayes (1980) among others[1].