Abstract

Two deep seismic reflection profiles and gravity measurements collected across the Banda arc east of Timor help to characterize crustal and uppermost mantle structures in the region where arc-continent collision is thought to be furthest advanced. Reflectors beneath the Sahul Platform of the Australian shelf indicate geometries consistent with older extensional rift structures overprinted by more recent horizontal shortening. To the north, the negative Bouguer gravity feature associated with the southern parts of the accretionary complex is unusually broad and deep. Post-collisional sediments are thin where this feature is crossed by the seismic lines, implying that older sediments or the crust are anomalously thick. Still further north, the forearc basin is notably narrow near eastern Timor and contains few sediments, most undeformed. The backarc region to the north is remarkable for the presence of a N-S trending line of seamounts culminating in an active volcano, Gunung Api, which is situated 400 km above the Wadati-Benioff zone. Reflection profiles across and along the seamount chain indicate underplating at Moho depths and a fault which appears to have acted as a conduit for basalt eruptions at the surface. Collectively, these observations imply anomalously thick and bouyant crust beneath the Banda arc east of Timor, and suggest two possible causes. Either a local promontory in the irregular boundary of the Australian craton was underthrust beneath the volcanic arc and forearc to 50–70 km depths or a Palaeozoic basin similar to the nearby Bonaparte Basin was underthrust and its former crustal structure inverted and thickened to form the buoyant crust. The new seismic reflection data help to locate the anomalously thick crust implied by gravity anomalies by defining the leaky fracture zone containing Gunung Api. It is inferred that the fracture propagates ahead of the indenting wedge of underthrust, thickened Australian crust.