Sarawak3int

Indonesia Offshore

South Timor Offshore

This geological cross-section between the Northern Australia Margin and the North Savu Sea through Timor Island illustrates the collision between the Australian lithospheric plate with the Banda volcanic arc with the formation of the Timor accretionary complex (accretionary wedge and forearc basins), as schematized on the next plate.

This schematic interpretation of a North-South cross-section, between the Northern Australian Shelf and the Banda Volcanic arc, explains the global tectonic context of the region, in which two convergent subduction zones seem more than likely, one explaining the Wetar volcanic arc and the other the plunging of the Australian lithospheric plate under the Wetar volcanic arc with formation of the Timor accretionary complex as illustrated ion the next Canvas autotrace.

The Atlantic-type divergent margin of the North of Australian is illustrated on the tentative interpretation of a manual autotrace. It has developed over a Permian substratum of the continental crust of the Gondwana small supercontinent. The pre-rifting unconformity seems to be located at the bottom of the Triassic sediments, while the breakup unconformity can be located at the top Triassic, since the continental encroachment of the post-rifting strata is, easily, recognized all along the breakup unconformity.

Indonesia Offshore