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Nature 432, 156-157 (11 November 2004) | doi:10.1038/432156a; Published online 10 November 2004

Earth science:  Mantle mapped in the desert

Georges Ceuleneer1

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How does variation in ocean-floor rocks arise from differences in the temperature of their mantle source? A new angle on the question comes from painstaking work on one of the geological wonders of the world.

One hundred million years ago, as the Tethys Sea separating the supercontinents of Gondwanaland and Laurasia closed, a huge chunk of mid-oceanic rocks was pushed up and onto the neighbouring continent. These rocks are now exposed in the mountains of northern Oman, running from the sands of Arabia to the Indian Ocean, and they constitute the 'Oman ophiolite' — at 30,000 km2, possibly the largest outcrop of ocean crust and upper mantle exposed on the continents and one of the geological wonders of the world.

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