Mesozoic cherts on crystalline schists in Sulawesi and Timor

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Abstract
In both Sulawesi and Timor Mesozoic cherts rest unconformably on metamorphic schists and gneisses. These occurrences are unusual in that radiolarian cherts are commonly associated with ophiolites, pelagic sediments or turbidites. No other occurrences are known where such cherts rest directly on rocks of continental derivation. These two occurrences are now separated by a distance of 900 km. According to some plate-tectonic hypotheses for the region, Sulawesi and Timor were juxtaposed during the Mesozoic and were subsequently separated by the development of the marginal Banda Sea during the Tertiary. These now widely separated occurrences lend support to this interpretation.