What are ophiolite suites?
[ ŏf′ē-ə-līt′, ō′fē- ] A sequence of rocks consisting of deep-sea marine sediments overlying (from top to bottom) pillow basalts, sheeted dikes, gabbro, dunite, and peridotite.
What is ophiolite used for?
Since the late 1970s, the term ophiolite has been used to describe sections of oceanic crust and upper mantle, along with sedimentary rocks deposited on the sea floor, emplaced as thrust slices onto continental lithosphere .
What are the 3 main layers in an ophiolite?
Sediments (layer 1) Volcanic Crust (layer 2) Plutonic Crust (layer 3) Mantle Harzburgite (layer 4) 4 layers distinguished from Geophysics: Typical Ophiolite: 1.
Where do the ophiolite suit of rock occur?
An ophiolite is a section of Earth’s oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed above sea level and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks.
What is ophiolite made up of?
From base to top the ophiolite is made of: peridotite, layered gabbro, massive gabbro, dikes, and volcanic rocks. At Samail this entire sequence is 15 km thick. The basal peridotite is made of a rock called harzburgite (made mostly of the minerals olivine and enstatite).
What are the main rocks in an ophiolite suite and how are they formed?
ultramafic rocks are known as ophiolites. Many geologists believe that ophiolites formed at oceanic ridges were emplaced by tectonic forces at convergent plate boundaries and then became exposed in highly deformed orogenic (mountain) belts.
What is the composition of ophiolite?
Ophiolite is a stratified igneous rock complex composed of upper basalt member, middle gabbro member and lower peridotite member (Fig. 1). Some large complexes measure more than 10 km thick, 100 km wide and 500 km long. The term “ophiolite” means “snake stone” in Greek.
What does ophiolite look like?
The name ophiolite means “snakestone” from “ophio” (snake) and “lithos” (stone) in Greek. The rock sequence is named for the brilliant green, snake-like serpentine minerals which form in altered ocean crust and mantle. Ophiolites are rare but nonetheless found throughout the world.
What is ophiolite rock?
Ophiolite is thrust sheets of ancient oceanic crust and upper part of mantle rocks that have been uplifted and exposed above sea level and often emplaced on top of the continental lithosphere.
What is ophiolite made of?
What is the best preserved and largest ophiolite?
Jormua ophiolite
The Jormua ophiolite is the best preserved one along a larger chain of ophiolites that occur within the Kainuu Schist Belt. The crustal rocks of the ophiolite include pillow lava, hyaloclastite, sheeted dykes, gabbro, plagiogranite and ultramafic cumulate rock.
Where does ophiolite come from?