Ordovician ophiolite in Gros Morne National Park, NewfoundlandChromitic serpentinite, Bay of Islands Ophiolite, Lewis Hills, Newfoundland
An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed, and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks.
The Greek word ὄφις, ophis (snake) is found in the name of ophiolites, because of the superficial texture of some of them. Serpentinite especially evokes a snakeskin. (The suffix -lite is from the Greek lithos, meaning "stone".) Some ophiolites have a green color. The origin of these rocks, present in many mountainous massifs, remained uncertain until the advent of plate tectonic theory.
Their great significance relates to their occurrence within mountain belts such as the Alps and the Himalayas, where they document the existence of former ocean basins that have now been consumed by subduction. This insight was one of the founding pillars of plate tectonics, and ophiolites have always played a central role in plate tectonic theory and the interpretation of ancient mountain belts.
An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed, and often emplaced onto continental...
The Samail Ophiolite, also known as the Semail Ophiolite, is a large, ancient geological formation in Oman and the United Arab Emirates in the Arabian...
The Troodos Ophiolite on the island of Cyprus represents a Late Cretaceous spreading axis (mid-ocean ridge) that has since been uplifted due to its positioning...
The Payson ophiolite is an ophiolite of Statherian age (late Paleoproterozoic) located near Payson, Arizona, US. The Payson ophiolite crops out south and...
Fidalgo ophiolite or Fidalgo complex is a Jurassic-aged ophiolite sequence located in the San Juan Islands of northwest Washington. The ophiolite complex...
Taitao ophiolite (Spanish: Ofiolita de Taitao) is an ophiolite in Taitao Peninsula of western Patagonia, Chile. The ophiolite crops out about 10 km w to...
generates a special type of igneous rocks, represented by the Taitao ophiolites, which is an ultramafic rock composed of olivine and pyroxene, usually...
Horokanai ophiolite is a geological complex located in the Kamuikotan tectonic belt about 30 km northwest of Asahikawa city, Hokkaido, Japan. The ophiolite complex...
Blue Ridge Ophiolite is an ultramafic series of pods found in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachian mountain chain. The pods formed before the Taconic...
that argue that the Isua Greenstone Belt or parts of it represent an ophiolite, a sliver of obducted oceanic crust and mantle, and those that argue that...
Notable ophiolites containing serpentinite include the Semail Ophiolite of Oman, the Troodos Ophiolite of Cyprus, the Newfoundland ophiolites, and the...
found in the Philippines. Ophiolite is suggested to be formed in subduction events in oceanic basins. The occurrence of ophiolite is common in the Philippines...
ophiolite formation by obduction as "where ocean crust slides into a trench and goes under a continent, [and] a part of the crust—i.e., an ophiolite—is...
Jormua Ophiolite The Jormua Ophiolite (Finnish: Jormuan ofioliitti) is a remnant of ancient oceanic lithosphere near the village of Jormua close to the...
The Coast Range Ophiolite is an ophiolite of Middle to Late Jurassic age located in the California Coast Ranges. The form the basement of the extreme...
fragments make up the basement that formed prior to the magmatic activity and ophiolite emplacement. Gondwana was a large continent that once extended over the...
The Zambales Ophiolite Complex (also called Zambales Ophiolite) is a large, well-preserved exposure of oceanic crust located in the western portion of...
for their geology and the presence of an undisturbed ophiolite sequence, the Troodos Ophiolite. These mountains slowly rose from the sea due to the collision...
of primitive island arcs (that is, closer to the ocean trench) and in ophiolite complexes thought to represent former fore-arc settings or at least formed...
imbricated thrust belt. This also coincided with the emplacement of the Semail Ophiolite. By the early Maastrichtian, deformation ceased, and stable continental...
younger towards the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the best-preserved ophiolite on Earth, the Semail Ophiolite, lies exposed in the mountains of the UAE and northern...
to Wallonia in Belgium. Britain's only other example of an ophiolite, the Shetland ophiolite, is older, and linked to the Grampian Orogeny. The Bodmin...
right. From north to south they are: Keryneia Terrane (blue) Troodos Ophiolite (red), surrounded by the Circum Troodos Sedimentary Succession (orange)...
continental rocks, but where it is found, it typically occurs at the base of ophiolite sequences where slabs of mantle rock from a subduction zone have been...
used in the 1760s to name a set of rock types that were found in the ophiolites of the Apennine Mountains in Italy. It was named after Gabbro, a hamlet...
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