Abstract The seven seismic units recognized in the Molengraaff paleo-delta on the Sunda Shelf underlying the postglacial unit can be interpreted as prograding shelf-margin lowstand wedges deposited during forced regressions. Speculative age estimates of these units were made by correlating the interpreted lowstand wedges with the SPECMAP δ 18 Ocurve. This correlation suggests that the oldest unit reaches back to 570 ka, that the mean sedimentation rates during glacial times are comparable to modern prodelta rates, and that the tectonic subsidence rate of the outermost shelf depressions during the latest Pleistocene was of the order of 27 cm/kyr. Subsidence (which was differential) also occurred in postglacial times. The rate at the shelf edge is of the order of 2.5 m/kyr, and the differential displacements are taken up by growth-fault activity. The outer Sunda Shelf was the delta plain of the Molengraaff River system during the last glacial, during which major fluvial entrenchment did not take place because of the low gradient. Sand ridges formed by transgressive reworking of Late Pleistocene material mark the modern water-depth range of 135–145 m. Mass wasting and fan deposition are important processes on the continental slope during regressions and lowstands.