Timorese call the Timor Sea the male sea for its rough waves
In Tetum the Timor Sea is tasi mane, the male sea, while the calmer, clearer strait off Timor's north coast is tasi feto, the female sea. Beneath the rougher water lie big oil and gas fields, and in 2009 a well leak became Australia's largest oil spill.
This fairly shallow arm of the Indian Ocean lies between Timor to the north and Australia to the south, with Indonesia to the northwest and the Arafura Sea to the east. It is about 480 km wide and covers roughly 610,000 km², mostly less than 200 m deep over the continental shelf. The exception is the Timor Trough in the north, plunging to about 3,300 m; some geologists treat it as an extension of the Java Trench, others as a trough in front of Timor's mountains. The name comes from the island, itself from Malay timur, east.
On the Australian side the sea borders the Joseph Bonaparte, Beagle and Van Diemen gulfs, and Darwin is the closest large city. Rivers such as the Victoria and the Alligator Rivers flow in from the Northern Territory and the Ord, Pentecost and Durack from the Kimberley. Islands include Melville in the Tiwi group and Australian-run Ashmore and Cartier, and the Big Bank Shoals, between the shelf and the trough, support an ecosystem unlike the surrounding deeper water. In 2010 a seabed crater about 50 km across was announced. Australia's first people may have island-hopped across when sea levels were lower, and the southwest-flowing Timor Current forms part of the Indonesian Throughflow carrying Pacific water into the Indian Ocean.
Oil and gas prospects were confirmed in June 1974, when the Troubadour No. 1 well struck 83 m of hydrocarbons about 200 km southeast of Timor, and disputes over the reserves led to the Timor Sea Treaty. The largest project, Bayu-Undan, some 500 km northwest of Darwin, began producing in 2004. Cyclones regularly pass through; Vivienne and Willy both disrupted output in early 2005, and workers are often flown to Darwin or Dili for safety.
From 21 August to 3 November 2009 the Montara field leaked oil, gas and condensate at about 400 barrels a day. An inquiry blamed the well owner, PTTEP, and Indonesian seaweed farmers filed a class action for damages. Earlier, on 19 February 1942, Japanese aircraft from ships including the carrier Kaga bombed Darwin and sank nine ships, among them USS Peary.
Source: Timor Sea
