January 9, 2012

Monday Geology Picture: Pillow Basalts in the Oman Ophiolite

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Pillow basalts in Oman... with pencil for scale. Samail Ophiolite, January 2012.

I’m currently in Oman for a geology conference, so today’s geology picture is one I recently took here in the Samail Ophiolite. The picture shows some weathered and fractured pillow basalts with a pencil for scale. These are not the best-looking pillow basalts in the ophiolite. The freshest ones are found in the Geotimes sequence up in the northern part of the ophiolite whereas these weathered ones are the best ones you can observe close to Muscat, the capital city of Oman. I apologize that this picture is a bit dark. Unfortunately, we arrived at the pillow basalt outcrop just as darkness was falling. So, I took this picture using my camera flash. Still… spectacular, isn’t it? Seafloor pillow basalts on land, in the middle of the desert!