January 17, 2012

Sheeted Dikes in the Samail Ophiolite, Oman

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

An old overturned truck near the sheeted dike outrcop, Samail Ophiolite, Oman, January 2012. Sheeted dikes are exposed in the foreground of the picture.

Last week I posted a picture of pillow basalts in the Samail Ophiolite, Oman. I recently visited Oman for a geology conference, and I was fortunate enough to see pillow basalts and many other wonderful geological sights in the Oman mountains and beyond. When I posted the picture of pillow basalts, geoblogger Ron Schott asked if I also had some pictures of sheeted dikes with chill margins. Good news, Ron. I do! Unfortunately, these aren’t the best pictures since they were taken in near-darkness with a flash. However, you can still see some of the dike features, including some classic chill margins.

For those of you who don’t know why ophiolites and sheeted dikes are really, really neat geologic features,  I suggest reading an old post of mine titled O is for Ophiolite.

Here are the sheeted dike pictures:

Sheeted dikes 1. Samail Ophiolite, Oman, January 2012.

Sheeted dikes 2. Samail Ophiolite, Oman, January 2012.

Sheeted dikes 3. Samail Ophiolite, Oman, January 2012.