January 18, 2012

Mantle Peridotite in the Samail Ophiolite, Oman

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Over the past couple of weeks, I posted pictures of pillow basalts and sheeted dikes in the Samail Ophiolite, Oman. To round out the crustal ophiolite sequence, I thought I would post a couple of pictures of mantle peridotite in the Samail Ophiolite. As you can see in the below pictures, mantle peridotite in the Samail Ophiolite is generally highly-weathered and a dullish brown color. Harzburgite tends to be a darker red-brown color while dunite is a lighter tan (or “dun”, hence the name) color.

Hiking through a wadi (ephemeral stream) in mantle peridotite, Samail Ophiolite, Oman, January 2012.

Gorgeous hills of mantle peridotite. In the distant hills the lighter brown color is dunite while the darker color is harzburgite. The bright white color in the valley is salt left by an evaporated ephemeral stream. Samail Ophiolite, Oman, January 2012.