Geology of Timor-Leste

The region was a subsiding passive margin from the Early Cretaceous through the Eocene, experiencing deep water carbonate and shale deposition.

During the mid-Eocene, the Australian Plate collided with a subduction zone, generating folds and thrusts plus emplacing sheets of ophiolite and continental rock on top of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks.

Slow subsidence and carbonate deposition were typical of the region from the Eocene through the Miocene, until a second phase of thrusting uplifted onshore structures up to one kilometer.

Offshore thrust sheets were buried beneath Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments.

[1] Media related to Geology of East Timor at Wikimedia Commons