Thrust tectonics in Timor

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Abstract
Recently it has been argued that the structure of the island of Timor can be interpreted without invoking the concept of major overthrust‐faulting. Using evidence from the Maubisse area of eastern Timor, Grady (1975) has suggested that the relationship between contiguous rock units in that area may be interpreted either as an unconformity or as steeply dipping fault‐planes. In the present account interpretations of the structure of Timor are reviewed and the concept of overthrusting is reconsidered. It is concluded that the structure may only be interpreted in terms of a series of overlapping thrust slices resting on folded sediments of the Australian continental shelf. The lowest thrust sheet, the Kolbano thrust sheet is composed of internally deformed deep‐water calcilutites. It is followed to the north by the Lolotoi thrust sheet, made up of a complex group of crystalline rocks varying from granulite to slate, together with unmetamorphosed ophiolites, clastic sediments, and massive Miocene limestones. Overlying this group to the north is the Maubisse‐Aileu thrust sheet composed of Permian crinoidal limestones and volcanics in the south, passing northwards into shales and sandstones. Within this unit there is also a marked increase in deformation and metamorphism from south to north. Slates in the south pass into mica schists, psammites, marbles, and hornblende schists of the amphibolite facies on the north coast of eastern Timor near Manatutu. A further thrust‐slice composed of ophiolites rests on this thrust unit on the north coast of western Timor between Wini and Atapupu. The composition, structural state, and metamorphic grade of the rocks composing each of these thrust slices is described. The detailed relationships of the thrust units, including those of the Maubisse area, in the neighbourhood of the thrust planes is reconsidered. The case for the concept of major overthrusting is restated, both from regional considerations and from new evidence obtained during recent field mapping. This interpretation is placed in the context of a collision between the Australian continental margin and a detached portion of the Asiatic continental margin during the Cainozoic Era.