OBDUCTION

Mechanism of Ophiolite Emplacement

BENYAMIN SAPIIE
INDRA GUNAWAN

GEODYNAMIC RESEARCH GROUP ITB

2020
OBDUCTION DEFINITION
• Obduction was originally defined by Coleman to mean the overthrusting of
oceanic lithosphere onto continental lithosphere at a convergent plate
boundary where continental lithosphere is being subducted beneath oceanic
lithosphere (Wikipedia, 2018).

• This process is uncommon because the denser oceanic lithosphere

usually subducts underneath the less dense continental plate.
• Obduction occurs where a fragment of continental crust is caught in
a subduction zone with resulting overthrusting of oceanic mafic and
ultramafic rocks from the mantle onto the continental crust.

• Obduction may occur where a small tectonic plate is caught between two
larger plates, with the lithosphere (both island arc and oceanic) welding onto
an adjacent continent as a new terrane. When two continental plates collide,
obduction of the oceanic lithosphere between them is often a part of the
resulting orogeny.
PROBLEM WITH OBDUCTION?

• Obduction remain enigmatic in the framework of

plate tectonics

“Obduction remains a mysterious process with respect to

why, how and where it develops. Obduction emplaces
unmetamorphosed fragments of dense (3.3 g/cm3), oceanic
lithosphere (ophiolites) atop light continental(2.6 g/cm3)
ones over distances of several hundred kilometres.”

Duretz et al. (2015)

OPHIOLITE

Average Density”: 3.3

Average Density”: 3.6

EXAMPLE - SAMALI OPHIOLITE OMAN
SAMALI OPHIOLITE OMAN

Metamorphic Sole
MELANGE - BOUDINAGE
MOHOROVICIC DICONTINUITY
MECHANISM OF KARANGSAMBUNG OPHIOLITE