Triassic Massive Limestones Forming High Peaks and Mountain Ranges in Timor: Part 2: Eastern Timor-Leste

This is the second part of an extensive survey of outcrops of the Bandeira Formation (Triassic massive shallow-marine limestone successions) in Timor-Leste on the northwestern margin of the present-day Australian continent. During the Late Triassic (Carnian to within the Rhaetian), the limestones were deposited as carbonate platforms in the East Gondwana Interior Rift system. Foraminiferal assemblages in the studied limestones from the Turiscai, Lilu, Pualaca, Paitchau and Tutuala regions in eastern Timor-Leste belong mainly within the Norian and lower Rhaetian. The age determinations are at variance with some previous stratigraphic correlations of the limestone units in each area, and this together with a consistent set of adjacent stratigraphic formations, results in revision of the tectonostratigraphic affinities of these shallow-water Triassic carbonate deposits.