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An #ophiolite is a rock with a secret: it tells the story of an ocean that lived and died.

Ophiolites are pieces of crust and mantle that formed at #spreadingcenters below an ocean. Why do we find these rocks (black dots) in mountain belts (red)? 🧵

doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.…

The #WilsonCycle describes how tectonic plates break apart, forming an ocean basin that grows around a spreading center. But the oceanic lithosphere is dense, and it eventually breaks and sink into the mantle. #Subduction closes the basin and the plates on either side collide.

Rocks that form at a #spreadingcenter have a distinctive sequence: sediments on top, then basalts that erupted underwater, then denser rocks crystallized from melted mantle, grading into mantle. You might find this sequence on land (an #ophiolite), but it formed under the ocean.

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Col Macpherson

@VolColMac

Attention subducters! 12 part THREAD on our new @VoiLA_NERC paper in @Nature, led by @Cooper_geo. TL;DR? Not all #subduction zones recycle water the same way & #LesserAntilles recycling changes in time and space [1/12]
rdcu.be/b49wQ

@VoiLA_NERC

So how did the @VoiLA_NERC team, funded by @NERCScience, use boron isotopes to show that water subducted by the #Atlantic Plate is directly linked to volcanic and earthquake activity in the #Antilles? [2/12]

@VoiLA_NERC

@VoiLA_NERC is tracking #water right through the #Antilles subduction zone. We chose this site because it contrasts with the much better studied Pacific margins [3/12]
doi.org/10.1029/2019EO…