{"doi":"10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10383","title":"Geodynamic constraints on ophiolite emplacement","abstract":"<p>Ophiolite complexes are commonly found outcropping along ancient suture zones in continental regions. Many geological studies suggest that, during subduction initiation, a small remnant of the oceanic crust can be thrusted upon continenal regions. This thrusting occurs during a process that is generally termed as “ophiolite obduction”. Despite the relatively small volume of the ophiolite rocks, their occurence provides important geologic/geodynamic constraints for the processes of subduction initiation. <br>Following the seminal work of Cloos (1993), oceanic lithosphere that is older than 10 Myrs is dense enough, and as a result, facilitates oceanic subduction in a spontaneous manner. This suggestion is based on the fact that buoyancy is one of the most important forces relevant to large-scale geodynamics. However, old oceanic lithosphere is also expected to be cold and, as a consequence, mechanically strong. The increased strength of the oceanic lithosphere hinders subduction initiation and makes ophiolite obduction difficult.<br>In this work we perform systematic numerical simulations to investigate the effects of initial geometry and convergence velocity on subduction initiation and ophiolite obduction. We use LaMEM to calculate 2D thermo-mechanical models that include the effects of visco-elasto-plastic rheology. In addition, we have incorporated a thermodynamically-consistent density structure for the crust and mantle. In this way, buoyancy forces are calculated in a consistent manner based on the pressure and temperature fields of the thermo-mechanical models. Our results show that when the oceanic lithosphere is older than 10Myr, subduction is very difficult and does not initiate in a spontaneous manner. Our systematic simulations provide insights for the range of conditions and parameters of oceanic subduction and ophiolite emplacement.</p><p>References<br>Cloos, M. (1993) Lithospheric Buoyancy and Collisional Orogenesis: Subduction of Oceanic Plateaus, Continental Margins, Island Arcs, Spreading Ridges, and Seamounts. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 105, 715-737.<br>https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1993)105<0715:LBACOS>2.3.CO;2</p>","journal":null,"year":null,"id":28819,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":160456,"name":"Evangelos Moulas","orcid":"0000-0002-2783-4633","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":160455,"name":"Iskander Ibragimov","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"18998881","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4221132854","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":0.0,"citation_percentile":0.06119792,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10383","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10383","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["High-pressure geophysics and materials","earthquake and tectonic studies","Geological and Geochemical Analysis"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Obduction","Subduction","Ophiolite","Geology","Lithosphere","Geodynamics","Oceanic crust","Geophysics","Mantle (geology)","Eclogitization","Buoyancy","Petrology","Tectonics","Seismology","Mechanics"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life below water"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-08T22:11:47.830698Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}