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Neogene tectonic and structural evolution of

the Timor Sea region, NW Australia:

Conference Paper · January 2002

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 Neogene tectonic and structural evolution of the
Timor Sea region, NW Australia:
M. Keep1, M. Clough2 & L. Langhi3
Abstract
Neogene deformation styles in the Timor Sea vary from
flexure-dominated in the NE to transtension-dominated
towards the SW. Neogene faults generally preserve overall
normal displacement despite sometimes complex
reactivation histories. Controls on fault style include
proximity to the Timor Trough, and position relative to
basement highs. Basement faults often control the location
of Neogene faults, with both hard- and soft-links preserved
throughout the area. Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic shales
and claystones act as ductile horizons and cause
detachment of basement from the Neogene in some areas.
Three main pulses of deformation at the Early Miocene,
Late Miocene and late Early Pliocene correspond to
regional tectonic events in the region. The Late Miocene
event in particular seems widespread, with synchronous
deformation through the Indo-Australian plate.
Introduction
Collision of the Australian Plate with the Banda Arc since
~25 Ma strongly influences Neogene structural styles in the
Timor Sea region and adjoining Browse Basin (Fig. 1). Plate
collision has caused localised flexure of Australian continental
crust in the Timor Trough (e.g. O’Brien et al., 1999), and
1:
Tectonics Special Research Centre, School of Earth and Geographical
Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Nedlands, WA,
6009. mkeep@tsrc.uwa.edu.au
2:
Geomechanics International, 191 St. Georges Tce, Perth, 6000.
3.
Institut de Geologie et Paleontologie, Universite de Lausanne, UNIL-
BFSH2, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Acknowledgements: MC and MK would like to thank Woodside Energy for their
support of this project and Ian Longley in particular for his continued support
and input. Thanks also to Mark Trupp who reviewed and improved an early
copy of this manuscript. This paper represents the Tectonics Special Research
Centre Publication 187. MK would like to thank the Landmark Graphics
Corporation and Petrosys for generously donating their software to UWA. LL
wishes to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation (project 2000-059188)
and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lausanne for their support.
Thanks also to the Swiss Academic of Sciences and the Société Académique
Vaudoise for their financial support. Kevin Hill and Marita Bradshaw are
thanked for their thoughtful reviews. Parts of this paper relate to MERIWA
Project M338, and the authors would like to acknowledge MERIWA, Woodside
Energy, Santos and AGIP Australia for their contributions to this project.
widespread reactivation and inversion of pre-existing
Precambrian to Mesozoic faults throughout the region (e.g.
Nelson, 1993; Keep et al., 1998; Shuster et al., 1998; Keep et
al., 2000; Keep & Moss, 2000). Within this collisional margin
setting, several regional scale tectonic events specifically
affected the Timor Sea region. These include:
• Terrane accretion and uplift in Papua New Guinea since
25 Ma (Hill & Hall, 2001)
• Subduction of the continent-ocean boundary south of
Sumba since 25 Ma (Muller et al., 1998; Keep et al., 2002)
• Possible underplating of Australian continental crust
beneath Sumba at 8 Ma, with resultant uplift of Sumba
Island (Keep et al., 2002).
• Collision of Timor Island with the Banda Arc and resultant
uplift of Timor at 3 Ma (e.g. Simandjuntak & Barber,
1996).
The interaction of these events with pre-existing basement
and rift-related structures has caused widespread reactivation
of earlier structures and the formation of distinct structural
domains. For example, reactivation styles differ markedly from
left-lateral transtension in the Bonaparte Basin (Shuster et al.,
1998), to right-lateral transpression in the northeast Browse
Basin (Haston & Farrelly, 1993; Keep et al., 2000) (Fig. 2).
This paper seeks to document the different deformation
styles in the Timor Sea and northeast Browse Basin, and
identify links between structural domains and tectonic events.
We investigate regional deformation in the Timor Sea,
examining structures observed on regional seismic data from
the Sahul Platform, Laminaria High, Cartier Trough, Vulcan
Sub-basin, northern Browse Basin and Ashmore Platform, to
illustrate structural styles in the region. In particular we
examine the distribution of flexure versus transtension as a
dominant deformation mechanism, and the influence of an 8
Ma (Late Miocene) regional tectonic event in developing the
structural architecture.
Regional Timor Sea interpretation
From northeast to southwest across the Timor Sea area
structural styles vary markedly. Structures within the Sahul
Platform, Laminaria High, Cartier Trough, Vulcan Sub-basin
342 Timor Sea deformation

Sorong Pacific Ocean

Kalimantan Sula- Fault
wesi

Banda Seram
New
Sea Guinea
5°
Flores Wetar
Thrust Thrust Banda Arc
Sunda Arc
Timor
Savu Australian
10° Sumba Basin
ugh Plate
or Tro Timor Sea
Tim Subduction
Argo zone
Abyssal Browse Thrust
15° Plain Basin Fault zone
Fault movement
0 km 500 direction

115° 120° 125° 130° 135°

Figure 1: Tectonic features of the northern Australian margin, modified from Charlton et al. (1991). Orange = Australian continental
basement; green = Australian offshore sedimentary basins; blue = oceanic crust; pink = all arc/oceanic crust north of the Australian plate
boundary, yellow = islands.

FLORES
U GH N
SU OR TRO
rm
MB
A TIM IMOR la tfo en
T
1 ulP rab
EURASIAN PLATE S ah
lit aG
Ma Darwin
rm
fo BONAPARTE Shelf
at 2
Pl BASIN
e
or
hm 3 London-
Pe b-Ba

ARGO As
Su

derry High
tre si

ABYSSAL
l

PLAIN
AUSTRALIAN
BROWSE BASIN
n

PLATE
Scott 4
Plateau rigid platform
sin

shelf
a
-b

sedimentary basin oceanic crust

b
Su

subduction
oo

shelf margin
rc

orientation
Ba

Leveque Shelf plate convergence

direction (from Keep et al., 1998).

Figure 2: Sedimentary basins and structural highs in the Timor Sea region. 1 = Laminaria High; 2 = Cartier Trough; 3 = Vulcan Sub-
basin; 4 = northern Browse Basin. Black box indicates location of Figure 4. Arrow pairs indicate inferred motion sense.

and northern Browse Basin (Fig. 2) exhibit apparently simple
geometries with net normal fault offsets. However, these
simple geometries may mask more complex reactivation
histories. Faults on the northern margin of the Sahul Platform
(Fig. 2) trend east-northeast and display overall net normal
offsets of between 100 ms (~250 m) and 1,000 ms (~2,500 m)
(Fig. 3). Maximum offsets occur at the late Early Pliocene
horizon, above which sediment thickens significantly into the
fault (Fig. 3), but only the largest faults penetrate the sea floor.
Deformation between closely-spaced faults at the NW end of
Figure 3 may be a result of a wrench component of movement.
Several of these large fault families have been correlated for
over a hundred kilometres. For example, an ENE-trending
fault system occurs on adjacent seismic lines over a length of
approximately 140 km, from wells Kelp 1 to near Sunrise 1
(Fig. 4). The fault system exhibits an overall net normal offset
at the late Early Pliocene horizon, with the amount of offset of
the late Early Pliocene horizon increasing towards the NE,
from approximately 50 ms (~125 m) at the southwestern end
to over 1,000 ms (~2,500 m) at the northeastern end (Fig. 4).
The amount of offset increases markedly approximately half
way along strike where the fault changes from not penetrating
the sea floor to a large offset of the sea floor. This marked
increase in fault offset coincides with a change in fault
orientation, from east-northeast to northeast. Sediment
thickening and variable fault offsets strongly suggest that the
main phase of movement occurred during the late Early
Pliocene. The disturbance of the sea floor is due, in part, to
younger movement on the fault.
In the Laminaria area (Fig. 2) faults trend mainly NE and
display maximum offset at the late Early Pliocene horizon,
with few faults penetrating through to the sea floor (Fig. 5).
Some faults have a maximum offset at the mid-Late Miocene
horizon and some displace immediately overlying sediments
NW
500 SAHUL PLATFORM AREA
1000
1500
2000
2500
4 km
3000
Figure 3: Structural style of the northern Sahul Platform area, showing the horizons mapped and the major faults. Note deformation
between adjacent faults to the NW, suggesting a wrench component of movement. WB = water bottom; E Plio = Early Pliocene; E Mio
= base Miocene; M Olig=Early Oligocene; Meso=top Mesozoic. Vertical scale is in milliseconds of two-way travel time.
M. Keep et al. 343
(Fig. 5). These deeper faults commonly have minor offsets, on
the order of 100 ms (~250 m). The late Early Pliocene to Early
Pleistocene sedimentary package commonly thickens into
faults (Fig. 5).
Faults within the northeast-trending Cartier Trough (Fig.
2) display overall net normal movement and cluster tightly
into discrete zones (Fig. 6). They commonly penetrate and
displace the seafloor by tens of metres. The Cartier Trough
developed as a deep, fault-bounded depocentre between such
fault clusters (Shuster et al., 1998). Neogene faults probably
initiated in the Late Miocene and commonly penetrate to
Pleistocene to Recent levels. Maximum offsets occur in the late
Early Pliocene, indicating the major phase of movement.
The Vulcan Sub-basin (Fig. 2) preserves northeast-
trending faults with overall net normal offset that seldom
penetrate the sea floor (Fig. 7). The relatively simple Neogene
structural style in this area shows maximum offset (up to 200
m) at the base Miocene level, suggesting the major phase of
movement occurred at that time. Faults penetrate to Pliocene
levels indicating that they continued to be active into the
Pliocene (Fig. 7).
Faults in the northern Browse Basin show small, overall net
normal displacements and relatively uniform offset (Fig. 8).
The southernmost fault (Fig. 8) exhibits overall net normal
offset of sediments up to just below the sea floor. Hanging-wall
sediments overlying the late Early Pliocene horizon thicken
into the fault. Adjacent faults terminate at various levels within
the Neogene section from the base Miocene horizon to near
the sea floor.
The northern Ashmore Platform area (Fig. 2) coincides
with a change in shelf margin orientation from northeast to
east-northeast. This bend concentrates deformation in the
region, and consequently the Ashmore Platform exhibits more
complex deformation than other areas within the study zone.
SE
WB
500
E Plio
1000
E Mio
M Olig 1500
2000
2500
Vertical exaggeration x2
3000
344 Timor Sea deformation

AS
N

AS

WA
AS
AS

B1
B1

IT
B3
AS

96
B1

13
11
05

-22
B2
WAIT96-22

09
SUNRISE 1

ASB

15
SUNWEST 1

207
TROUBADOUR 1 ASB113
102
ASB
106
KELP 1 20 km ASB
104
ASB SIKATAN-1

500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500 E.Pliocene - Recent
4000 Vertical exaggeration ~x1.7 on all sections ASB111
base Miocene -
E.Pliocene
ASB305 mid-Oligocene -
ASB207 ASB215 ASB109 base Miocene
pre - Oligocene

Figure 4: Fault correlation from the northern Sahul Platform area. Key wells shown for reference. Faults reach and offset the seafloor to
the NE. Scale is in milliseconds TWT, and the same scale applies to all seven cross sections. For location see Figure 2.

SE NW
0

WB LAMINARIA AREA
500 E Pleist
E Plio
1000
M-L Mio
1500 E Mio

2000

Meso 1 km
2500 no vertical exaggeration

Figure 5: Structural style of the Laminaria area. Distributed deformation shows net normal offset. WB=water bottom; E Pleist = Early
Pleistocene; E Plio = Early Pliocene; M-L Mio = mid-Late Miocene; E Mio = base Miocene; Meso = top Mesozoic. Vertical scale is in
milliseconds of two-way travel time.

NW SE
0

WB CARTIER TROUGH AREA

500

1000

1500 E Plio
M-L Mio
2000 E Mio

5 km Vertical exaggeration ~x5

2500

Figure 6: Structural style of the Cartier Trough. Faults cluster tightly to the NW and SE. WB = water bottom; E Plio = Early Pliocene;
M-L Mio = mid-Late Miocene; E Mio = base Miocene. Vertical exaggeration x5. Vertical scale is in milliseconds of two-way travel time.
 M. Keep et al. 345

NW SE

WB
500 E Plio
M-L Mio
1000 E Mio

1500 Meso

2000
VULCAN SUB-BASIN AREA
1 km
2500 no vertical exaggeration

Figure 7: Structural style of the Vulcan Sub-basin. Simple faults show net normal offset. WB = water bottom; E Plio = Early Pliocene;
M-L Mio = mid-Late Miocene; E Mio = base Miocene; Meso=Mesozoic. Vertical scale is in milliseconds of two-way travel time.

Faults trend northeast and display predominantly overall net
normal displacement, with vertical variations in offset along
the faults. A significant number of faults penetrate the seafloor,
with offset up to 300 ms (~450 m) (Fig. 9). Displacement
varies from apparent net reverse offset, through no net offset,
to net normal offset along individual faults. Variable offset also
occurs along individual faults (Fig. 9, location A), and
sediment thickening on the footwall (Fig. 9, location B)
indicates reverse displacement occurred on the faults during
the Miocene. Fault-related folding occurs at locations C and D
(Fig. 9), with upper horizons displaying anticlinal geometries
(C) while synclinal geometries occur at depth (D). This fault-
bounded deformation with varying styles suggests complex
deformation and reactivation in the area.
Smaller-scale variations in deformation style across the
Ashmore Platform mimic larger scale changes throughout the
Timor Sea. Mesozoic structures that separate the Ashmore
Platform from the Vulcan Sub-basin (Fig. 10) show strong
reactivation to the northeast and on the central border of the
Platform (blue and green areas respectively on Figure 10), and
only localised, discrete reactivation to the southwest (orange
area on Figure 10). The northwest margin of the Platform,
dominated by flexure during the formation of the Timor
Trough (Fig. 1) displays large reactivations that affect the sea
floor (Fig. 9).
At the boundaries between the Ashmore Platform, Vulcan-
Sub-basin and Londonderry High (Fig. 10), Neogene
structures commonly form convex-upward fault arrays. Some

NW SE
0

NE BROWSE BASIN
500
WB

1000 E Plio
M-L Mio
E Mio
1500

2000 Meso

2500 1 km
no vertical exaggeration

Figure 8: Structural style of the northern Browse Basin. Faults cluster, with one fault accommodating most of the Neogene strain. WB
= water bottom; E Plio = Early Pliocene; M-L Mio = mid-Late Miocene; E Mio = base Miocene; Meso= top Mesozoic. Vertical scale is in
milliseconds of two-way travel time.
346 Timor Sea deformation

NW SE

ASHMORE PLATFORM AREA

1000
WB E Plio
L Mio C B
1500
E Mio D
M Olig A
2000
D

2500 Meso

3000

1 km
no vertical exaggeration
3500

Figure 9: Structural style of the northern Ashmore Platform area. See text for discussion on locations A to D. WB = water bottom; E Plio
= Early Pliocene; L Mio = Late Miocene; E Mio = base Miocene; M Olig = mid Oligocene; Meso = top Mesozoic. Vertical scale is in
milliseconds of two-way travel time.

of these structures displace the Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic
shales and claystones, forming hard links to underlying
Mesozoic faults, whilst others form soft-linked structures with
the underlying faults (Fig. 11). Mesozoic faults, whether hard-
or soft-linked, tend to act as loci for the formation of Neogene
faults. The younger faults commonly cluster above the
termination of an older fault, and some occur directly up-dip
of the older faults (Fig. 11). Such fault relationships have been
interpreted as hard-linked in the Browse Basin (Keep & Moss,
2000), and soft-linked in the Timor Sea (de Ruig et al., 2000).
In this paper the terms hard-link(age) and soft-link(age) are
used to describe cross-sectional fault patterns (e.g. de Ruig et al.
2000). They are not related to a surface or subsurface structural
pattern (plan view) associated with an extensional process
related to a basement-involved model (hard-linked model with
transfer faults) or a basement-detached model (soft-linked
model with accommodation zones) (e.g. O’Brien et al., 1996).
Summary of structural styles
Net normal displacement dominates faulting in the study
area, and has been variably attributed to simple extensional
faulting from plate flexure (e.g. Patillo & Nicholls, 1990;
O’Brien et al., 1993; AGSO, 1994; Woods, 1992), or wrench
reactivation, with several possible pulses (Nelson et al., 1993;
Shuster et al., 1998, Keep et al., 2000).
Regional deep seismic data across the Timor Trough (e.g.
Hughes et al., 1996; Snyder et al., 1996) indicate a
considerable amount of flexure associated with the descent of
the Australian continent into the trough (e.g. Patillo &
Nichols, 1990; O’Brien et al., 1993). Northwest- and
southeast-dipping faults have offsets of up to 2,500 m and are
regularly distributed from the margins to the axis of the
trough. The large fault offsets, including displacement of the
seafloor, on the northern margin of the Sahul Platform, may
be controlled preferentially by the large flexural stress at this

Strong reactivation
along Ashmore
margin
h
ug
r Tro
o ure
Tim flex Ashmore Platform
t e
pla
h
ug
r tro
rtie
Ca
Discrete
Tertiary
reactivation
Strong reactivation
separating Ashmore
sin
b- n

Platform from Vulcan

Su ulca
ba

Sub-basin
V

Northern
Browse
Basin
100 km
N
Figure 10: Structural elements map for the Ashmore platform, showing main platform boundaries, major faults, folds and sub-basins.
Coloured areas indicate locations of Neogene reactivation.
 M. Keep et al. 347

Quat Quat
Neog.
Neog.
Palaeog.
Palaeog.
U. Jur- U. Jur-Cret
Cret
Triassic
Triassic

a. b.

Quat
Neog. Quat

Palaeog. Neog.

Palaeog.
U. Jur-Cret
U. Jur-Cret

Triassic Triassic

c. d.
Figure 11: Schematic representations of fault styles within the Timor Sea. a). Tertiary structures (black) cluster around Mesozoic faults
(red); b). Tertiary structures occur up-dip of Mesozoic faults, with a decoupling between reactivated and new faults due to the Upper
Jurassic-Cretaceous. ductile layer; c). Hard-linked structures join Tertiary (new) and Mesozoic (reactivated) faults. Red area highlights
links; d). Decoupled or soft-linked structures detach at ductile layers; red areas highlight links. Quat .= Quaternary, Neog. = Neogene,
Palaeog.= Palaeogene, U. Jur-Cret. = Upper Jurassic to Cretaceous in all figures.

SP
OR
TIM

LH
LDH
AP
CT Keep et al., Figure 6

TT

plate motion vector

Shear component at
plate flexure plate boundary
Figure 12: Block diagram showing partitioning of deformation on the margins of structural highs adjacent to the Timor Trough. Note
the increasing strike-slip component towards the southwest. Seismic lines from Figures 3, 5, 6 & 9 shown for reference. SP = Sahul
platform; LH = Laminaria High; AP = Ashmore Platform; CT = Cartier Trough; LDH = Londonderry High; TT = Timor Trough.
348 Timor Sea deformation
a. null point b.
1
2
1
2
3
3 Neogene faults with their Jurassic precursors (e.g. de Ruig et
1 1
2 2
3 3
1
1
2 2
3 3
Figure 13: a). Inversion of a normal fault. Note that some
horizons still show net normal displacement after inversion (from
Williams et al., 1989). b). Differential offsets between adjacent
faults within an array due to jostling of fault-bounded blocks
(from Ryan & Coleman, 1992).
point. However, dominant stresses change along the length of
the Timor Trough, from flexure- to wrench-dominated
(Clough, 1999) (Fig. 12).
Evidence of wrench reactivation includes the upward drag
of horizons into faults (e.g. Fig. 9), and the complex
deformation between adjacent faults (Fig. 3), which are not
common features of brittle extension. Overall net normal
offset may still remain at some horizons after subsequent
reverse or wrench movement on a normal fault if the amount
of inversion does not exceed the initial normal offset (Fig. 13).
Several phases of reactivation may be recorded as variable
displacements along individual faults (Fig. 13), and adjacent
faults within an array may record different amounts of motion
due to jostling of fault-bounded blocks during reactivation
episodes (Fig. 13).
Wrench reactivation has been documented in the Timor
Sea region (Nelson, 1993), especially in the Cartier Trough,
interpreted as a left-lateral pull-apart basin (Shuster et al.,
1998). At the Laminaria High and around the Ashmore
Platform (Fig. 2) Neogene deformation, expressed as right-
stepping en echelon faults, indicates a component of left-
lateral motion (Shuster et al., 1998; de Ruig et al., 2000),
consistent with left-lateral strike-slip earthquake fault plane
solutions in the general area (Cockatoo Island,1997; National
Earthquake Information Centre). Flexural extension alone is
therefore not a viable mechanism to explain all of the overall
net normal offset observed in the study area as it fails to
account for the inferred oblique displacement. In addition,
although the density and magnitude of net normal
displacement generally increases with proximity to the Timor
Trough, flexure of Australian continental crust associated with
the development of the Timor Trough at 3 Ma postdates the
faulting events observed during the Miocene by over 5 Ma.
Many faults that penetrate the Neogene represent
reactivated Jurassic rift-structures or pre-existing Jurassic
weaknesses (e.g. Keep & Moss, 2000). However, thin
detachment horizons may impede through-going linkage of
al., 2000). Analogue models of a viscous layer between a
pre-faulted basement and an overlaid sedimentary package
(Withjack & Callaway, 2000) show that after normal
reactivation of the basement, the pattern of the fractures
that develops in the upper sedimentary sequences depends
on the type and thickness of sediments, the thickness and
viscosity of the viscous layer and the displacement and the
rate of displacement of the underlying disconformity. The
fault patterns generated by these experiments mimic fault
patterns in the Timor Sea and on the Ashmore Platform
(Fig. 14). The Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous shale
and claystone sequences may act as the viscous layer, that is
a layer of strain and displacement accommodation/
decoupling or a soft-linkage zone as described in de Ruig et
al. 2000). Neogene faults occur in the sedimentary section
above this underlying discontinuity. These layers of
accommodation (soft-linkage zones) influence the
development, location and geometry of Neogene structures.
In this case, reactivated Mesozoic faults will not cut the
Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous shale and claystone at the
seismic scale. Instead the viscous layer accommodates the
strain, decoupling the shallow and deep deformation
(Withjack & Callaway, 2000).
a.
0
2000
4 km
4000
b.
4 cm
Sand added during deformation
Sand added before deformation
Silicone putty
Metal base
Figure 14: Similarities between analogue models and detached
faults from the Ashmore Platform. a). schematic cross section
from the Ashmore Platform; vertical scale is in milliseconds of
two-way travel time; b). Examples of structures from analogue
models in which basement is detached from cover (redrawn from
Withjack & Callaway, 2000).
 M. Keep et al. 349

Age Regional tectonic

(Ma) events
PNG SUMBA NWS NINETY EAST

Strike-slip Timor
begins uplift Late Early Pliocene
5 (4-3 Ma)
Finisterre Sumba 8 Ma Inversion along
Accretion uplift collision 90 East ridge
10 Late Miocene
(11-5.5 Ma)
15 Sinistral
wrenching Sumba
along PNG escape
20 margin
Base Miocene
25 Initial plate collision (25 Ma)
Figure 15: Correlation of regional tectonic events on the Timor Sea, in comparison to regional events on Papua New Guinea, Sumba
and the Ninety East Ridge (Bull & Scrutton, 1992; Hill & Raza, 1999; Rutherford et al., 2001; Keep et al., 2002).

Timing the Timor Sea coincides with a number of tectonic features in

Two major structural events (Late Miocene and late Early
Pliocene) and one minor event (Early Miocene) have been
identified from seismic data (Fig. 15).
• Earliest Miocene event (25-23 Ma), suggested by faults
showing a maximum offset at this level and faults
terminating at this horizon.
• Late Miocene event (11-5.5 Ma), indicated by some faults
show a maximum offset at the Late Miocene horizon;
some faults terminate at the Late Miocene horizon and
often show a thickening of sediments on the hanging wall.
• Late Early Pliocene event (4-3 Ma), indicated by a suite of
faults (especially in the NE) which show a maximum
amount of offset at the late Early Pliocene horizon.
Sediments directly overlying the late Early Pliocene horizon
thicken into the hanging wall of overall net normal faults;
large offsets of up to 1,000 ms are associated with such
faults; several major depocentres developed at this time.
Variations in structural style reflect different tectonic
controls. The margins of the Sahul and Ashmore platforms
and Laminaria High (Fig. 2) host the densest Neogene faults
(Fig. 12); the northern Browse Basin, in which faulting is not
confined to the margins of a high, hosts the most diffuse
deformation. These structural domains accommodate left-
lateral transtension (Nelson, 1993; Shuster et al., 1998; Keep
et al., 2002) and right-lateral transpression (Keep et al., 2000)
respectively. Further details of right-lateral transpression in the
Browse Basin (Barcoo Sub-basin) can be found in Keep et al.
(2000).
The transition from a right-lateral transpressional domain
in the Browse Basin to a left-lateral transtensional domain in
the area. A domain boundary (compartment boundary of
O’Brien et al., 1996) occurs as a distinct bathymetric
lineament on the seafloor (O’Brien et al., 1999, their figure 7),
and parallels similar lineaments observed in gravity and
magnetic data (AGSO, 2001; Keep et al., 2002). These
lineaments act to bound structural domains within the current
plate tectonic framework.
In summary, the majority of faults occur on the margins
of pre-existing structural highs and are influenced by a variety
of factors. The northern Sahul Platform and Laminaria areas,
adjacent to the Timor Trough, are strongly influenced by plate
flexure associated with the Trough. In contrast, the northern
Ashmore Platform, situated at the southwestern end of the
Timor Trough is influenced by the interaction of plate flexure
and left-lateral deformation and the change in margin
orientation.
Discussion
Three main tectonic events, at 25, 8 and 3 Ma respectively,
are superimposed to varying degrees within the study area.
The 25 Ma event (Fig. 15), weakly preserved in the study area,
coincides with the collision of the New Guinea region of the
Australian Plate with the Philippine Sea Plate (Hall, 1996).
The Late Miocene (8 Ma) event (Fig. 15) has been proposed
to coincide with collision between a microcontinental
fragment and the Banda Arc (Richardson & Blundell, 1996)
and the main compression phase in Papua New Guinea (Hill
& Raza, 1999). Alternatively, Keep et al. (2002) suggest that a
finger of Australian continental crust collided with and
underplated Sumba at this time. The timing of this event
coincides with the arrival of Sumba in its present position and
350 Timor Sea deformation
N magnetic anomalies
INDIAN PLATE
NINETY
CENTRAL
INDIAN EAST
RIDGE RIDGE
INDIAN
OCEAN
10.2 plate motion rate and
direction
convergent plate
boundary
spreading direction
Figure 16: Regional tectonics of the Indo-Australian Plate, showing major plates and plate boundaries, the direction and rate of plate
motion (Genrich et al., 1996), and the documented zones and styles of deformation.
its uplift (Rutherford et al., 2001). Some authors also date the
docking of the Finisterre Terrane in Papua New Guinea at 8
Ma (e.g. Cullen et al., 1996; Hill et al., 1993; Crowhurst et al.,
1996), however the timing of this accretion varies from 11 Ma
(Liu & Crook, 2001) to uplift at 1.3 Ma (Hill, pers. comm.,
2002). This event may have also affected the Late Miocene
faulting event in the Timor Sea region.
Late Early Pliocene overall net normal reactivation of pre-
existing structures displaced Neogene strata by up to 1 second
(2,500 m). The timing of this event (Fig. 15) coincides with
collision of the Australian and Eurasian plates in the Timor
region, at approximately 3 Ma (e.g. Packham, 1996), that
caused uplift of Timor and the formation of the Timor
Trough. Therefore, the late Early Pliocene deformation
observed in the study area probably resulted from the initial
stages of that plate collision. Regional seismic data show that
Late Miocene-late Early Pliocene sediments have a prograding
geometry at the base of the Timor Trough, indicating that the
Trough probably did not develop until the late Early Pliocene
to Recent. Sea-floor displacements indicate that faulting
continues to the present-day and that ongoing convergence of
the north-northeast moving Australian Plate with the
westward-moving Pacific Plate dominates present-day stress
distributions in the Timor Sea region (Hillis, 1998).
An 8 Ma plate-wide event
Late Miocene deformation occurs throughout the Indo-
Australian Plate from New Guinea to the North West Shelf to
as far west as the central Indian Ocean, and as far south as the
basins of SE Australia (Fig. 16). Differential, but not
independent, movements between the Indo-Australian Plate
and the Indian, Eurasian and Pacific plates probably caused
this widespread coeval deformation.
maximum horizontal
stress orientation
strike-slip zones
thrust zones
PACIFIC
EURASIAN PLATE
PLATE
10.2
0.4 PNG
7.8
AUSTRALIAN
PLATE
Regional contractional deformation occurred in Papua
New Guinea throughout the Late Miocene (e.g., Packham,
1996; Hill & Raza, 1999). These events are recognised by a
regional unconformity separating deformed Early-Middle
Miocene carbonates and clastics from overlying relatively
undeformed Pliocene marine clastics (Cullen, 1996).
Collision led to a major plate reorganisation, including the
reversal of subduction polarity to the northwest of New
Guinea, and an increasing degree of oblique sinistral
convergence between the Australian and Pacific Plates
(McCaffrey, 1996). The 8 Ma collision also led to the
propagation of compressive stresses well into the Australia
continent, reactivating structures as far south as the Carnarvon
Basin of the North West Shelf and the Cooper and Eromanga
basins of southeastern Australia (Etheridge et al., 1991). In the
Timor Sea region this 8 Ma event is less intense than the 3 Ma
event that overprints it. Net normal displacements and fault
inversion are evident in the Late Miocene.
In the central Indian Ocean, regional seismic data display
a zone of reverse faults trending approximately E-W (e.g. Bull
& Scrutton, 1992; van Orman et al., 1995) (Fig. 16).
Deformation commenced in the Late Miocene (7-8 Ma),
indicated by a regional unconformity dated from ODP leg
116 drilling results (van Orman et al., 1995). This
deformation may represent a diffuse but distinct boundary
between the Indian and Australia plates (Wiens et al., 1985)
as indicated by anomalous heat flow, marine gravity data,
satellite altimetry and seismic data (Wiens et al., 1985).
Differences in the rate and direction of relative plate motions
due to collision in the north (Himalayas) and subduction in
the NE (Sunda Trench) may have caused the deformation
observed at the proposed oceanic plate boundary in the
central Indian Ocean (Fig. 16).

Conclusion
Neogene structural styles in the Timor Sea vary
considerably between the Sahul Platform and the Barcoo Sub-
basin. Deformation around the Sahul and Ashmore Platforms,
Laminaria High, Vulcan Sub-basin and Cartier Trough
indicate overall net normal fault displacement, influenced by
both left-lateral transtension and plate flexure. Complex fault
offsets in the Ashmore Platform result from their location at a
bend in the basin margin. In the northern Browse Basin,
complex deformation reflects right-lateral transpression. The
transition between left-lateral transtension and right-lateral
transpression coincides with bathymetric and geophysical
lineaments that act as domain boundaries.
The timing of the three main deformation phases at the
Base Miocene (25-23 Ma), Late Miocene (11 to 5.5 Ma) and
Late Early Pliocene (4-3 Ma) coincide with regional tectonic
events. In particular, evidence for an 8 Ma occurs through the
entire Indo-Australian plate, indicating major plate
reorganisation at this time.
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 M. Keep et al. 353

Biographies
Myra Keep is a Senior Lecturer in Structural Geology and Basin Tectonics at the University of Western
Australia. Prior to her appointment at UWA in 1997 she previously held positions at Mobil, the Fault
Dynamics Group at London University, and was the Mobil Lecturer in Structural Geology at the University
of Aberdeen. Myra received her BSc from the University of London, her MSc from the University of British
Columbia in Vancouver, and her PhD from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She is a member
of the WABS 2002 organising committee, Co-Editor of the WABS3 journal, a past Secretary of PESA WA,
is a Chartered Geologist with the Geological Society and is also a member of AAPG and PESGB.

Martyn Clough joined GeoMechanics International (GMI) as a geologist in June 2000. Recent work
includes analysis of in situ stress, fault stability, wellbore stability, drilling engineering and wellbore imaging
for oil and gas fields around the world. He has a BSc (Hons) majoring in Geology and Geophysics at the
University of Western Australia. His Honours project was on the Neogene Structural Evolution of the Timor
Sea Region. He was the recipient of PESA Honours Award, the Hugh Doyle Prize, and the Rex T. Prider
Medal. Returning to his engineering roots, he is a member of the SPE.

Laurent Langhi is currently doing a PhD thesis at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) on the Cainozoic
evolution of the North West Shelf. His work is mainly based on 2D/3D seismic interpretation, including such
tools as 2D/3D attributes analysis/classification, seismic stratigraphy and structural analysis. This project
benefits from collaborations with Woodside and Schlumberger. He has a BSc and in 2000 received his MSc
working on a Dampier Sub-basin structural project. Upon graduation he undertook a period of training with
Norsk-Hydro Energy, and in 2001 he was a visiting researcher at the University of Western Australia.

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