page_title: Palawan (island)
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Palawan (island) / Geography / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park geologic marker
context_page_description: Palawan is the largest island of the province of Palawan in the Philippines and the fifth largest island of the country. The north west coast of the island is along the South China Sea, while the south east coast forms part of the northern limit of the Sulu Sea. Much of the island remains traditional and is considered by some as under-developed. Abundant wildlife, jungle mountains, and some white sandy beaches attract many tourists, as well as international companies looking for development opportunities.
  As of 2016, the main island of Palawan was rated the "Most Beautiful Island in the World" as voted by respective readers of rival travel publications Conde Nast Traveller and Travel + Leisure. It is the second year running that Palawan has won the Conde Nast Traveller award, as well as the second time in four years that it has occupied Travel + Leisure's top spot. El Nido, located at the northern tip of the island, is also currently rated the "Most Beautiful Beach in the World" by Conde Nast Traveller readers. In 2007, National Geographic Traveler magazine rated Palawan the best island destination in East and Southeast Asia region, having:
context_section_description: The geology of Palawan is, in many ways, unlike other parts of the Philippines. The crust of northeast Palawan was derived from the southeast edge of the continental crust of China, part of the Eurasian Plate. It is the exposed portion of a microcontinent that drifted southward with the opening of the South China Sea. This microcontinent also forms the shallow water north of Palawan in the Reed Bank-Dangerous Ground area of the southern South China Sea. Some of the oldest rocks of the Philippines are found in northeast Palawan (Permian-Carboniferous age). Southwest Palawan exposes primarily ophiolitic material (rocks derived from uplifted oceanic crust and mantle). This 34 Myr old (latest Eocene-earliest Oligocene) ophiolite appears to have been thrust upon the continental crust as well as the older, Cretaceous ophiolitic and sedimentary units. The transition from "oceanic" ophiolite in the southwest to "continental"-type rocks in the northeast occurs in the area of central Palawan around Ulugan Bay and the Sabang area. In the southern coasts of Ulugan Bay and Sabang Beach, are several exposures showing that the Palawan ophiolite has been thrust on to the continent-derived clastic rocks ("Sabang thrust").
  The Palawan Trough is an area of deeper water adjacent to the north coast of Palawan in the South China Sea. The Palawan trough is thought to be due to downbending of the continental crust due to the weight of the ophiolite thrust sheet.
  Further north, around the Malampaya Sound area and up to the El Nido area, one finds older (Triassic-Jurassic) deep marine chert and limestone. The limestone forms spectacular karst terrain. These units are part of the microcontinent ("North Palawan Block") although they are deep marine rocks marginal to the continental crust. They were accreted to the Chinese continental crust in the Mesozoic at a time when an Andean-type subduction zone existed in southeast China.
  Intruding these rocks in central Palawan (Cleopatra's Needle area) and northern Palawan (Mount Capoas or Kapoas area) are young granite bodies (true granite to granodiorite). The Kapoas intrusion is of Miocene age (13-15 million years old based on zircon and monazite U-Pb dating). In the Taytay area of northern Palawan, a young basaltic cinder cone is another manifestation of young magmatic activity. The granitic magmatism and basaltic magmatism are both expressions of what has been identified as a widespread post-South China Sea spreading magmatism that has affected many areas around the South China Sea.
  Tectonically, Palawan with the Calamian Islands, is considered to be a north-east extension of the Sunda Plate, in collision with the Philippine Mobile Belt at Mindoro.
caption: Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park geologic marker
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