Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The age of the oceanic crust can be used to estimate the (thermal) thickness of the lithosphere, where young oceanic crust has not had enough time to cool the mantle beneath it, while older oceanic crust has thicker mantle lithosphere beneath it. [19] The oceanic lithosphere subducts at what are known as convergent boundaries. These boundaries ...
Ophiolites are sequences of mafic to ultramafic rock generally believed to represent ancient oceanic lithosphere.They are distributed all across the world being all of them located at present or past orogenic belts, sites of mountain building processes.
Obduction is a geological process whereby denser oceanic crust (and even upper mantle) is scraped off a descending ocean plate at a convergent plate boundary and thrust on top of an adjacent plate. [1] [2] When oceanic and continental plates converge, normally the denser oceanic crust sinks under the continental crust in the process of ...
Caroline plate – Minor oceanic tectonic plate north of New Guinea – 1,700,000 km 2 (660,000 sq mi) Cocos plate – Young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America – 2,900,000 km 2 (1,100,000 sq mi) Indian plate – Minor plate that separated from Gondwana – 11,900,000 km 2 (4,600,000 sq mi)
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.
Oceanic lithosphere consists mainly of mafic crust and ultramafic mantle and is denser than continental lithosphere. Young oceanic lithosphere, found at mid-ocean ridges, is no thicker than the crust, but oceanic lithosphere thickens as it ages and moves away from the mid-ocean ridge. The oldest oceanic lithosphere is typically about 140 ...
This is a list of minerals which have Wikipedia articles. Minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various species .
The following is a list of rock types recognized by geologists.There is no agreed number of specific types of rock. Any unique combination of chemical composition, mineralogy, grain size, texture, or other distinguishing characteristics can describe a rock type.