PRESENTATION ON OPHIOLITES

BY

HAFIZ SHAHID HUSSAIN

YOUSAFZAI
BS 3rd year University of Peshawar Pakistan
 OPHIOLITES

• Ophio is Greek for "snake", lite means

"stone" from the Greek lithos.
• The name is given because ophiolites
have similarity in colour and texture
with snakes, some greenish colour.
 Definition

• An Ophiolite is a section of the Earth's

oceanic crust and the underlying upper
mantle that has been uplifted or emplaced
to be exposed within continental crustal
rocks
 History of term Ophiolite
• The term ophiolite was originally used by Alexandre Brongniart
(1813) for an assemblage of green rocks (serpentine, diabase) in
the Alps
• Steinmann (1927) later modified its use to include serpentine,
pillow lava, and chert ("Steinmann's trinity"), again based on
occurrences in the Alps
• The term was little used in other areas until the
late 1950s to early 1960s, with the recognition
that this assemblage provided an analog for
oceanic crust and the process of
seafloor spreading.
• This recognition was tied to two events:
• the observation of magnetic anomaly stripes on the
seafloor, parallel to oceanic ridge systems, interpreted by
Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews (1963) to
represent the formation of new crust at the oceanic ridge
and its subsequent spreading away from that ridge,
• the observation of a sheeted dike complex within the
Troodos ophiolite (Cyprus) which must have formed by
100% intrusion of new magma, since no older wall rocks
are preserved within the complex (Gass 1968). Moores
and Vine (1971) concluded that the sheeted dike complex
at Troodos could only form by a process similar to the
seafloor spreading Thus, it became widely accepted that
ophiolites represent oceanic crust that had been
emplaced on land.
 Formation of Ophiolites
• Ophilites are fragments of oceanic crust
and upper mantle that have been uplifted
and emplaced on continental margins.
 Lithology of Ophiolites
Ophiolites consist of five distinct layers.

 The first layer is the youngest and is

primarily sediment that was accumulated
on the seafloor
 The second layer is pillow basalt. Pillow basalt is
characterized by large pillow or cloud shaped
blobs. When erupting lava encounters the cold
sea water, the outside of the lava immediately
crystallizes, forming a thick crust. The extremely
hot lava still inside the blob, oozes out of the
crust and instantly crystallizes again. As this
process of cooling continues, the result is a very
thick succession of pillow shaped blobs.
The next layer consists of sheeted dikes.
Sheeted dikes form by rising magma
within the earth's crust. As the sheeted
dikes cool fractures and cracks occur in
the rock. As more magma rises, the
magma intrudes through the weak cracks
and form new dikes, as this process
continues the result is a wall of sheeted
dikes
Sheeted dikes are underlain by gabbro,
which is compositionally similar to basalt,
but more coarse grained due to the slow
cooling process.

The bottommost layer is peridotite, which

is believed to be mantle rock composition
 Types of ophiolites
Most ophiolites can be divided into two groups:
• Tethyan ophiolites are characteristic of those
that occur in the eastern Mediterranean sea
area, e.g., Troodos in Cyprus and Semail in
Oman, which consist of relatively complete rock
series corresponding to the classic ophiolite
assemblage and which have been emplaced
onto a passive continental margin more or less
intact (Tethys is the name given to the ancient
sea that once separated Europe and Africa).
• Cordilleran ophiolites are characteristic of those
that occur in the mountain belts of western North
America (the "Cordillera" or backbone of the
continent). These ophiolites sit on subduction
zone accretionary complexes (subduction
complexes) and have no association with a
passive continental margin. These include the
Coast Range ophiolite of California, the
Josephine ophiolite of the Klamath Mountains
(California, Oregon), and ophiolites in the
southern Andes of South America. Despite their
differences in mode of emplacement, both types
of ophiolite are exclusively SSZ in origin (e.g.,
Shervais, 2001).
Similarity b/w oceanic
crust and ophiolites
Difference between Oceanic crust
and Ophiolites
Thickness
Age
Density
Compostion
 Density
• The density of the oceanic crust is low as
compare to the ophiolite sequence
 Age
• the age of ophiolite formation is often
surprisingly close to the age of their
emplacement into the continental crust
• In addition, no ocean crust is older than
about 200 million years
 thickness
• Ophiolites do not have any contrast
thickness. They may have even more or
less thickness while oceanic crust have
5-7 km thickness.
 Compostion
Ophiolite lavas are dominated by arc
tholeiites, back arc basalt, andesite etc
which are different from oceanic crust
lavas
 Ophiolites in pakistan
• Indain palte collision with eurasian plate
and afghan plate.
• East-west trending ophiolites due to I.P
collision with E.P.
• North-south trending ophiolites due to I.P
collision with A.P
 Eurasian block ophiolites
• Dargai
• Mingora – bajaware
• Chilas
• etc.
 Afghan block ophiolites
• Waziristan
• Zhob
• Muslim Bagh
• Bela
• etc.
 conclusion
Ophiolites are slabs of ancient oceanic
crust obducted/preseved onto the
continental crust/earth surface.
They are located in collisional boundaries.
Their compostion is sediments, lavas,
sheeted dikes, gabbros, and ultramafic
rocks.
Have similarity with oceanic crust.
The End