The Rocas Verdes ophiolites (Spanish: Complejo Ofiolítico de Rocas Verdes) are a series of greenschists and other rocks constituting ophiolites in Magallanes Region, southernmost Chile. The Rocas Verdes ophiolites represent the continental-oceanic crust that existed in a back-arc basin in the Mesozoic Era as result of extensional tectonics.[1] This back-arc basin then evolved into the Magallanes foreland basin in the Cenozoic Era within the context of the wider Andean orogeny.[1]
The main Rocas Verdes ophiolites are the Sarmiento and Tortuga complexes. Volcanic rocks in both complexes belong to the tholeiitic magma series. While neither represent true oceanic crust Tortugas complex has more geochemical affinity to oceanic crust.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b Stern, Charles R.; De Wit, Maarten J. (2013). "Rocas Verdes ophiolites, southernmost South America: remnants of progressive stages of development of oceanic-type crust in a continental margin back-arc basin". In Dilek, Y.; Robinson, P.T. (eds.). Ophiolites in Earth History. Geological Society, London, Special Publications. pp. 665–683. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.1026.5572.
- ^ Stern, Charles (1979). "Open and closed system igneous fractionation within two chilean ophiolites and the tectonic implication". Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology. 68 (3): 243–258. Bibcode:1979CoMP...68..243S. doi:10.1007/BF00371545. S2CID 128480031.
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