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Abstract: An integrated multidisciplinary investigation of the Lolotoi Complex of East Timor (Timor Leste) indicates that it is part of the Banda forearc that was metamorphosed and rapidly exhumed during the Eocene and accreted to the NW Australian continental margin during Late Miocene to present arc–continent collision. Greenschist, graphitic phyllite, quartz–mica schist, amphibolite and pelitic schist dominate metamorphic rock types. Mineral, whole rock, and trace element geochemical analyses of metabasites indicate protolith compositions consistent with tholeiitic basalt and basaltic andesite with mixed MORB and oceanic arc affinities. Metapelite schist is mostly composed of metasedimentary units derived from mafic to intermediate rocks with oceanic to continental volcanic arc provenance. Thermobarometric calculations show peak metamorphic conditions of 530 °C to 680 °C for garnet–biotite pairs and amphibole, and peak pressures of 5 to 10 kbar for garnet–aluminosilicate–quartz–plagioclase assemblages. Peak metamorphism occurred at 45.36±0.63 Ma, as indicated by Lu–Hf analyses of garnet. Detrital zircon grains have a U/Pb age distribution with spikes at 663, 120 and 87 Ma, which is typical of detrital zircon ages throughout the Great Indonesian Arc of Asia, but is distinct from Australian affinity units. These data indicate deposition and later metamorphism occurred after 87 Ma. Structural analyses of the metamorphic rocks and their sedimentary and volcanic cover units reveals 5–6 deformational phases of alternating shortening and extension. There is little to no evidence of strike-slip deformation. Phases 1–4 are inferred as pre-Oligocene from age determinations. Phases 5 and 6 are most likely related to latest Miocene to Pliocene nappe emplacement and Pliocene to present collisional deformation. Kinematic indicators show mostly top to the SE directed shortening and top to the south and SE extension. Structural mapping indicates that the Lolotoi Complex and some of its cover units are in thrust contact with underlying Gondwana Sequence rocks. Asian affinity volcanic and sedimentary cover units are found mostly in normal fault contact with metamorphic rocks. These data indicate that the Lolotoi Complex of Timor Leste is correlative with the Mutis Complex of West Timor and both form part of the Banda Terrane, which is composed mostly of dispersed fragments of the eastern Great Indonesian Arc. The study demonstrates the complex nature and deformational history of forearc basement. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

New sedimentary geochemistry and petrographic analyses provide the most extensive sedimentary documentation yet of the rapid denudation of the young Timor orogen. The data from three basins including two widely-separated, well-dated sections of the Synorogenic Megasequence of Timor-Leste, and a re-dated DSDP 262, constrain the source and timing of detrital sediment flux during forearc-continent collision along the Timor sector of the Banda Arc. The exhumed synorogenic piggy-back basins formed above a mélange unit that developed at the expense of a weak stratigraphic horizon in the Mesozoic stratigraphy, and was exhumed to the sea floor in latest Messinian time. Following an interval of deep marine chalky marl sedimentation, an increasingly muddy sediment flux indicates that the island of Timor became emergent and shed sediment by 4.5 Ma. Comparison of exhumed sections with similar patterns in the DSDP262 chemistry suggests that the sediment source was probably located some 50–60 km distant from the basin, which is consistent with the Aileu region of Timor-Leste that shows an appropriate exhumation history. All sedimentation between 4.5 and 3.2 Ma was probably derived from a low-relief, rapidly eroding, and mudstone-dominated landscape with geochemical affinities to the Triassic-mudstone-derived synorogenic mélange. The mélange unit overlies and surrounds the Banda Terrane, and was presumably structurally emplaced by propagation of a decollement through the Triassic rocks during the collision. After 3.2 Ma, sedimentation was dominated by hard rock lithologies of the Banda Terrane, consisting of forearc cover and basement, the latter including elements of metamafic rocks and metapelites. This phase of sedimentation was accompanied by rapid uplift, which may have been partly driven by a transient imbalance between rock uplift and denudation as resistant lithologies emerged from below mélange-like mudstone. Previous work has suggested that the timing of collision in Timor-Leste and West Timor was substantially different. Our reevaluation of DSDP 262 facies migration history in the context of the re-dating presented here, favours a relatively synchronous onset of uplift in both halves of the island, but with different partitioning of strain between the foreland and hinterland in each half of the island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of arc-continent accretion often assume that the period of subduction of continental lithosphere before plate boundary reorganization is fairly short lived, yet the timescale of this period is poorly constrained by observations in the geologic record. The island of Timor is the uplifted accretionary complex resulting from the active collision of the Banda volcanic arc with the Australian continental margin. The exposure of underplated and exhumed Australian strata on Timor allows for the characterization of the structural history of accretion of uppermost Australian crust and the quantification of subduction of its original continental lithospheric underpinnings. New structural mapping in East Timor (Timor-Leste) reveals that duplexing of a 2-km-thick package of Australian continental strata has built the majority of the structural elevation of the Timor orogen. Coupling new structural observations with previous thermochronology results reveals the sequence of deformation within the orogen, the presence of subsurface duplexing below the hinterland slate belt, and motion along a foreland subsurface thrust ramp. Construction of balanced cross sections allows for the quantification of the amount of shortening in the orogen, and from that, the length of the subducted Australian continental lithosphere. Two balanced cross sections in East Timor reveal 326-362 km of shortening and that 215-229 km of Australian continental lithosphere have been subducted below the Banda forearc. These results highlight the fact that considerable amounts of continental lithosphere can be subducted while accreting only a thin section of uppermost crust. Continental subduction may have been favorable at Timor because of fast subduction rates, old oceanic crust at the consumed Australian margin, and subduction of some length of transitional crust. These results provide quantitative constraints for future numerical modeling of the geodynamics of continental subduction and arc-continent collision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]