Thermal history of Australian passive margin cover sequences accreted to Timor during Late Neogene arc–continent collision, Indonesia

Abstract

Paleotemperature indicators and apatite fission track analysis of Australian continental margin cover sequences accreted to the active Banda arc–continent collision indicate little to no heating during rapid late Neogene uplift and exhumation. Thermal maturation patterns of vitrinite reflectance, conodont alteration and illite crystallinity show that peak paleotemperatures (PPT) increase with stratigraphic and structural burial. The highest PPT is found in the northern hinterland of the accretionary wedge, which was beneath progressively thicker parts of the upper plate towards the north. Major discontinuities in the pattern of PPT are associated with the position of major thrust ramps such as those forming the Ramelau/Kekneno Arch (RKA). PPT for Upper Triassic to Neogene strata south of the RKA are 60–80°C, which are similar to, and in many cases lower than, correlative and age equivalent units drilled on the NW Australian Shelf. Permian to Lower Triassic sedimentary strata thrust over younger units within and north of the RKA have PPT of 100–220°C. Thrust sheets accreted beneath the upper plate have PPT approximately 90°C higher than those frontally accreted. Metamorphism of the northernmost units of these sequences yield PPT of >300°C. Thrust stacking yields an inverted thermal profile of PPT decreasing discontinuously downward and to the south (towards the foreland). The timing of PPT is constrained by apatite fission track ages from mostly Triassic continental margin cover sequences. Ages of Upper Triassic units are primarily coeval with deposition and show little evidence of thermal annealing, whereas those of Lower Triassic units are almost completely annealed and range from 1.8±0.5–19.2±9.7 Ma. The clustering of apatite fission track ages into two distinct groups indicates that the upper boundary of the partial annealing zone has remained for some time at a Triassic stratigraphic interval in the slope and rise of the NW Australian continental margin. The position of this zone on the present shelf is higher in the stratigraphic column due to the greater thickness of post-breakup shelf facies units. Thrust stacking of rise, slope and shelf units produces an inverted vertical profile of increasing apatite fission track age with depth. Lack of any long confined track lengths in apatite from all of the units requires rapid and recent exhumation of the thrust stack, which is coincident with rapid phases of Pliocene–Pleistocene exhumation documented throughout Timor. These data preclude pre-Late Miocene tectonic burial or pre-Pliocene exhumation of the NW Australian continental margin.