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Preliminary Overview of the Character, Patterns and Styles of The Geologic Structure of Kulon
Progo Mountains Area and Its Potential as a Source of The Geological Structural Damage

Asmoro Widagdo1, Subagyo Pramumijojo1, Agung Harijoko1, Ari Setiawan2

1) 2)
Geological Engineering-Gadjah Mada University, Geophysics Department-Gadjah Mada University

Abstract This volcanic area grow above the Paleogene age of

Kulon Progo Mountain area is the west boundary of the
Yogyakarta plain area, a city with very large threat of
earthquake disasters. The eastern boundary of the
Yogyakarta city has proven to be the area that became the
epicenter of a very destructive earthquake. This threat can
also occur in Kulonprogro area as the west border of the
Yogyakarta plain area.
Study of the geological structures in the boundary area of
Yogyakarta-Kulonprogo mountain conducted to determine
the character of the existing geological structure. Research
on patterns of geological structure in the form of a joints,
faults and folds conducted at several locations of the
boundary Yogyakarta plains and Kulonprogro mountainous
area. Some data of the geological structure of the secondary
sources and combined with the primary data from the
Kulonprogro mountain area used to reconstruct the
geological structure that has worked and the potential for
the future disaster of the area.
The geological structure that works in the Kulonprogo
mountainous areas have a direction and style patterns
similar to the patterns and styles that produce destructive
earthquake in the Southern Mountain area of Yogyakarta.
Nanggulan Formation and covered by carbonaceous rocks
(limestone and marl) with Neogen age of Jonggrangan and
Sentolo Formation.
Research and publication about the conditions of the
geological structure in the area of Kulonprogo and
surrounding mountains are still rare. At the Geological Map
of Yogyakarta where this area is located, made on a regional
basis so that the existing structure only major regional
structures.
Physiography
Kulonprogo mountainous area is a part of the Central
Java Province and Yogyakarta Special Province. This
mountain is located in the southern part of Java Island and is
a part of the South Serayu Mountains in the eastern part.
Kulonprogro Mountainous bounded by the Bogowonto river
in the west, which separates the Purworejo plains and
southern Serayu Mountains. In the eastern part of the
mountain is limited by Progo River, which separates with
the Yogyakarta plain. In the southern area bounded by
Java's southern coastal plain and in the northern part
bounded by Magelang flat area.

Keywords: Structural geology, Joints, faults, folds,

earthquakes, Kulon Progo.

Introduction
Yogyakarta graben is bordered by Opak fault at the
eastern side and by Kulonprogo mountain range at the
western side. It has proven that opak fault cause a great
disaster to the Yogyakarta plain area. There are a lot of
research and publication about the Opak fault as a source
place of the earthquake. Related to the earthquake, there are
other locations that should be studied as an area that is
suspect potential threat of earthquake area besides Opak
fault zone. Figure 1. Kulonprogo area among the Central Java tectonic
framework (Sujanto and Ruskamil, 1975 on
Geological structures that may be associated with Opak
Suroso, et al, 1987
fault at the plains of Yogyakarta and the west border should
be studied. There are many a lineaments at Kulonprogo area Based on the relief and genesis, Kulonprogo
as a western border of Yogyakarta flat area. Kulonprogo Mountainous area can be divided into several units of
area is a mountainous area, bounded by a low and high area geomorphology:
of Kebumen in the west and low area of Yogyakarta in the
opposite site. Kulonprogro mountainous area is
characterized by a complex of some ancient volcanic rocks.

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A. Mountainous Unit ancient volcanic formation makes morphological shape of

Mountainous morphology is developed with north to
south trending. The mountain range is a main part of
Kulonprogo regency and Purworejo regency area. The
section of the dome at the long axis extends approximately
30 km to the north northeast-south southwest. Stadia area of
this unit is already at the mature stage with a strong
presence of erosional morphology.
B. Hilly and Flat Units
The hilly area of limestone occupies the southeastern
part of the Kulonprogo area. River terraces occupied the
eastern part, in the southern part is a coastal alluvial plains,
alluvial plains in the west and the plains of volcanic
sediment in the north and northeast.
medium to steep mountains. The thickness of this formation
is about 600 m. Based on planktonic foraminifera fossils
that were found in the marl can be determined Old Andesite
Formation age is Upper Oligocene.
C. Jonggrangan Formation
At the upper part of Old Andesite Formation was
deposited Jonggrangan Formation with unconformity
contact. The bottom part of the Jonggrangan Formation is
composed by conglomerate and tuffaceous marl, and
calcareous sandstones containing molluscs and claystone
with lignite. At the upper part, the composition of this
formation is become a layered limestone and coral-
limestone.

Regional Stratigraphy

Regionally, there are some rock formation at

Kulonprogo mountainous area. These formation starting
from the oldest to the youngest is as follow :
1. Nanggulan Formation
Nanggulan formation forms undulating low hills
morphology to medium and spread at Nanggulan region.
This formation mainly found at eastern part of Kulonprogo
mountain area. Locally, with small distribution, this
formation also found in the area of Sermo, Gandul, and
Kokap in the form of lenses or xenolith block in andesite
igneous rock. Nanggulan Formation has the location type in
the area of Kalisongo river-Nanggulan sub district.
Nanggulan formation is the oldest rock formation in the
Kulonprogro mountainous area. It was deposited at a
depositional environment in transgresive phase condition of
the sea. The lithology of the Nanggulan Formation consists
of sandstone with lignite, sandy marl, mudstone with
limonite concretion, marl and limestone, sandstone, tuff rich
in foraminifera and mollusks. Estimated thickness of the
formation is about 350 m.
Nanggulan formation is composed of shallow
marine sediment, sandstone, shale, marl and lignite. Based
on the study of planktonic foraminifera, Nanggulan Figure 2. Regional Geological Map of Kulonprogo area
Formation has a range of age between the Middle Eocene (Rahardjo, 1995)
to Oligocene and. Quartz sandstone present at this
formation indicates that the area is a part of a micro
continent (Prasetyadi, 2008) This rocks formation makes a mountains, hills and
scattered cones in the central part Kulonprogro Mountains.
Kebobutak/Old Andesite Formation/OAF) The thickness of the rocks formation is about 250-400
meters. The age of this formation is Lower Miocene to
This volcanic rocks formation is deposited over Middle Miocene. This bottom part of the formation is
Nanggulan Formation with unconformity contact. This rock considered the Lower Miocene and inter-fingering with the
formation consists of volcanic breccia with fragments of bottom part of the Sentolo formation.
andesite, lapilli tuff, tuff, lapilli breccia, andesite lava flow,
agglomerates and volcanic sandstones. This rock exposed at D. Sentolo Formation
many area in the Kulonprogo mountain range. On the top of volcanic rock of Old Andesite Formation
This formation is well exposed in the center, north and (OAF), beside Jonggrangan Formation, deposited also
southwest areas of Kulonprogro mountain range. This Sentolo Formation. This formation lies at the lower part by
unconformity contact. Relationship of Sentolo Formation
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and Jonggrangan is inter-fingering. The calcareous material
of this formation comes from Jonggrangan Formation.
Sentolo Formation consists of limestone and marl-
sandstones.
The lower part consists of a conglomerate-boarded by
marl tuff and tuffaceous with glass. Its part contains some
volcanic material from OAF volcanic formation. These
rocks gradually upwards turned into a nice layered
limestone rich in Foraminifera. The thickness of this
formation is approximately 950 m.
E. Alluvial Deposits
Alluvial deposit is composed by gravel, sand, silt, and
clay along large rivers and coastal plains. Alluvial plain
consists of alluvial material from volcanic rock. Alluvial
deposits can be found at the east side, the west and south of
Kulonprogro area. Beach alluvial deposits of sand along the
beach found in the southern of the Kulonprogro area.
ancient volcanoes that still seems ideal (Suroso, et al, 1987).
It can be seen also on the Geological Map Sheet Yogyakarta
(Rahardjo, et al, 1995), published by the Geological
Research and Development Centre, Bandung. The presence
of radial structure associated with the presence of this
volcano need to be reexamined.
Base on the Geological Map of Yogyakarta latest sheet
(Rahardjo, et al, 1995), showing that the Opak fault is the
boundary faults parallel to each other in the east, but no
faults were found on the west side of Yogyakarta. The
reason why the fault in the western part is still unknown is
because there is no tectonic studies at this area, which have
been carried out in the boundary of Kulonprogo
mountainous area and the Yogyakarta plain area.

Tectonics
Kulonprogo tectonic order can be explained by the
active-margin system. The main tectonic element of this
system is the subduction zone of the Indian oceanic-plate
beneath the Eurasian continental-plate. The subduction
makes some element of tectonic like accretion zone at south
of Java. Subduction generates magmatism and volcanism
that make Java Island and the arc magmatic. This system
creates back arc basin area in North Java and the Java Sea.
With the active system margin, basin of North West Java
and North East Java can be classified as a Back arc Basin,
while the South Java basin is Fore Arc Basin. Base on this
system, Kulonprogo is as a part of the magmatic arc.

Figure 4. Regional geological structures of Kulonprogo and

Figure 3. Kulonprogo area is a part of the active subduction
plate tectonic margin.
As a part of Java Island, Kulonprogo importance
tectonic aspects are tectonic development of Sunda
platform, India sub-continent movement from the south to
the north and the movement of India oceanic crust
(Pulunggono and Mertodjojo, 1994).
surrounding areas.
There is a possibility that the fault in the west is a
subsurface fault or has been covered by younger Merapi
volcanic sediment (Barianto, et al, 1999).
Expression of faults and fractures in the Kulonprogo
area is higher than at southern mountain on the east side.
Apparently, the expression of straightness in the western
part is controlled by tectonic activity which is higher than at
the eastern part (Barianto, et al, 1999).

Structural Geology
Base on Regional Geologycal Map, the structural
geology of Kulonprogo mountainous area consists of some
normal faults (Rahardjo, et al, 1995). These faults are very
common and indicate a radier patterns around the body of
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Figure 5. The appearance of joints on the rock in with the axis trending direction are NE-E and W-SW
Kulonprogo area indicate the maximum stress direction is from is fron S-SE.
This maximum stress direction is not normal to the
There is a development of different orientation of joint subduction zone. The subduction at the south of the study
or fracture in Kulonprogo area. It can be distinguish at the area is from the south to the north with the orientation of
different age of the rock which record the fracture or joint. trench is E-W. The fold direction which caused by this
The oldest rock would record all structural event while the tectonic should be E-W.
youngest rock would record the latest of the structural
phase. Barianto, et al, 2009, has drawn the orientation of the
fracture/joint at three volcanic rock (Harjanto, 2011) of the
Kulonprogo area which have different age. The oldest
structure recorded from Gadjah volcano rock which lies at
the central part of Kulonprogo area. The age of this oldest
volcanic rock is Oligocene age. It has a complex orientation
of structures. All structural events would record at this
oldest rock age. The joint orientation of the Ijo volcano
which has Oligo-Miocene age is more simple as it not
record the oldest structure. The youngest structure recorded
at Middle-Upper Miocene has a simplest orientation as it
may just record one structural event.

Figure 7. Reverse fault in Kulonprogo mountain area. All

layers at the left side are move up relative to the
right side.

Figure 6. Fracture development from the oldest to the

youngest at the volcanic rock in Kulonprogo area
(Barianto, at al, 2009).
Historically, Tectonic of the Yogyakarta graben area
(Barianto, et al, 1999) during the compression phase, which
is controlled by NNE-SSW compression force during the
Tertiary, creating a horizontal fault NW-SE and NE-SW.
Appointment / uplift that occurred after the end of the
Pliocene, and then followed by extensional phase during the
Pleistocene. This extension creates an E-W normal fault and
the reactivated sinistral NE-SW faults as normal faults. This
fault is as a barrier of Yogyakarta graben.
There are some structural geology in the mountains area
of Kulonprogro, such as folding, faulting and jointing. The
fold can be found at Nanggulan Formation and Sentolo
Formation which have ductile character of rock. These
structures have NE-SW axial trending. Its indicated that the
maximum force direction is southeast trending (SE-NW).
Some fold structures have already drawn at the regional
geological map. This fold structure can be found at the
southern part of the Kulonprogo area. Anticline and syncline
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Figure 8. Some structures and the maximum stress
directions which form the Kulonprogo area.
Some strike slip fault or horizontal fault with the
direction southeast-northwest and east-west found in the
field. Its cut Old Andesite Formation and Sentolo
Formation. At the southern part of Kulonprogo area, the
strike slip fault with left lateral movement is Sermo fault
(N149oE/84oSW). Clereng fault has right lateral movement
with fault plane N272oE/80oN. The two fault may form as
continuation stress of the compressional joints. The
maximum stress direction which create these faults is come
from 17o,N120oE direction or SE direction.
Figure 9. The stereographic analysis of principal stress
orientation of Sermo and Clereng faults structure.
At the northern part of Kulonprogo area, the strike slip
fault with left lateral movement is Boro fault
(N304oE/80oNE). Sendangsono fault has right lateral
movement with fault plane N155oE/84oSW. The maximum
stress direction which creates these faults is come from 24o,
N137oE direction or SE direction. This compressional stress
may form Kalibawang reverse fault with strike and dip fault
plane is N50oE/62SE.
Figure 9. The stereographic analysis of principal stress
orientation of Sendangsono and Boro faults
structure.
The others reverse fault (Girimulyo fault and Nanggulan
fault) have the same strike direction, it interpreted as a fault
with the same force. The folds have a perpendicular
orientation to the maximum stress direction of the strike slip
fault. They should have same maximum stress direction also
with the Kalibawaang reverse fault.
The maximum stress direction of the some structural
geology of the Kulonprogo area may related to the stress
direction of other structural geology of the southeastern area
of Yogyakarta. It may have the same potential with the same
structure orientation like Opak fault at the east of
Yogyakarta area.
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Conclusions
Structural geology like joint, fold and fault can be found
in Kulonprogo Mountain area. The maximum stress
direction that makes some structural geology of the studied
area is SE-NW trending.
The presence of the geological structure in the
Kulonprogo area needs to be detailed study.

References
Barianto, D.H., Abboud, E., Setijadji, L.D., 2009,
Structural Analysis using Landsat TM, Gravity
Data, and Paleontological Data from Tertiary
Rocks in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Memoirs of the
Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, Vol.69,
No.2, June 2009.
Harjanto, A., 2011, Vulkanostratigrafi di Daerah
Kulonprogo dan Sekitarnya, Daerah Istimewa
Yogyakarta, Jurnal Ilmiah MTG, Vol. 4 No. 2, July
2011, Yogyakarta.
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Tahunan IAGI ke 37, IAGI, August 2008,
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Geotektonik Pulau Jawa Sejak Akhir Mesozoik
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Rahardjo, W., Sukandarrumidi, Rosidi, HMD., 1995, Peta
Geologi Lembar Yogyakarta, Pusat Penelitian dan
Pengembangan Geologi, Bandung
Sudradjat, A., Syafri, I., Budiadi, E., 2010, The Geotectonic
configuration of Kulonprogo Area, Yogyakarta,
Proceeding PIT IAGI Lombok 2010, The 39th IAGI
Convention and Exhibition, Lombok.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to the higher education department, the ministry
of education and culture of Republic Indonesia. Many
thanks to all of friends in the doctorate program, Geological
Engineering Department-Gadjah Mada University, for the
discussions and supports.