| 英文摘要: | Ophiolites are pieces of oceanic crust and upper mantle that have been emplaced onto the continents. The formation of ophiolites is a fundamental component of plate tectonics, potentially related to the initiation of new subduction zones. Recent application of high-precision U-Pb dating has advanced our understanding of the formation and emplacement of the Semail (Oman-United Arab Emirates) ophiolite, the largest and best studied ophiolite in the world. This project will expand on the recent work, undertaking detailed high-precision dating of metamorphic rocks persevered below the ophiolite, which likely formed at depths greater than 35 km within a subduction zone. The results will address long-standing debates regarding the origin of ophiolites, and provide new insight into how ophiolites can be used to understand modern mid-ocean ridges, subduction zones, and potentially the initiation of subduction, a critical but poorly understood tectonic process. The research will advance desired societal outcomes by graduate student training in the earth sciences, involvement of Omani students, public outreach, and fostering collaborations between scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
A thin sole of amphibolite- to granulite-facies metamorphic rocks underlies the Semail and other Tethyan ophiolites. As preserved remnants of the underthrust plate, sole exposures can be used to better understand the formation and obduction of ophiolites. Recent data from two large exposures of the metamorphic sole below the Semail ophiolite yielded surprising results, indicating that that the earliest sole metamorphism was synchronous with or pre-dated formation of the ophiolite crust and that metamorphism was diachronous along the length of the ophiolite, spanning 1.3 Ma, contrary to current models. These data, combined with existing geochemical constraints and the estimated metamorphic pressures from the sole, are best explained by formation of the ophiolite in a supra-subduction zone setting, with metamorphism of the sole rocks occurring in a subducted slab. To better understand the implications of these results to the origin of ophiolites, the project scientists will carry out high-precision isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) U-Pb zircon dating at exposures of the metamorphic sole throughout the Semail ophiolite. The new dataset from the sole of the ophiolite has the potential to provide transformative insight into the formation and emplacement of ophiolites, and to processes of subduction and exhumation at convergent margins. |