| Abstract: | Regional geological evidence appears to be incompatible with the hypothesis that the alpine-type ophiolites, which are found at numerous localities on the northern margins of the Arabian and Indian continental blocks, represent oceanic lithosphere emplaced by obduction. All of them were emplaced during the same brief period in the Late Cretaceous, at which time these Gondwana continents were at varying distances from Eurasia and were drifting passively northwards towards a north-dipping subduction zone at the opposing, northern side of the closing Tethys ocean: they were apparently emplaced on inactive continental margins which show no evidence of underlying subduction or, necessarily, of compression. As a possible solution to the problem of their origin, it is suggested that they reached their present positions above the miogeosynclines on the continental margins by means of gravitational gliding from an uplift, caused by the intrusion/extrusion of mantle material at a locus of weakness along those margins. Although some material from the former Tethys floor may be included, the ophiolites are thought to consist primarily of mantle material that has broken through the earth's surface under conditions of tension. The necessary identification of ophiolites as fragments of oceanic lithosphere, as marking former plate boundaries, and as indicative of a compressive environment, should be regarded with caution. |
