obduction

Latin obductio; see Latin ob, ductio.

obduction (countable and uncountable, plural obductions)

1. (obsolete) The act of drawing or laying over, as a covering.
2. (largely obsolete) An autopsy.
3. (geology) The overthrusting of continental crust by oceanic crust or rocks from the mantle, such that the oceanic crust is thrust onto the continental crust, as occurs at a convergent plate boundary when the continental crust is caught in a subduction zone.
   • 2004, Gérard M. Stampfli, Gilles D. Borel, Chapter 3: The TRANSMED Transects in Space and Time, William Cavazza, François M. Roure, Wim Spakman, Gérard M. Stampfli, Peter A. Ziegler (editors), The TRANSMED Atlas: The Mediterranean Region from Crust to Mantle, Springer, page 73,

     Around Arabia - as well as in the Himalayas - these obductions completely obliterated the Neotethyan ocean, which in this time frame is represented only by a few exotic blocks and by Permo-Triassic pelagic sediments found at the sole of the Cretaceous ophiolites.

   • 2011, Wolfgang Frisch, Martin Meschede, Ronald C. Blakey, Plate Tectonics: Continental Drift and Mountain Building, Springer, page 72,

     These frictional forces slowed the obduction of the ophiolite onto the continental margin and obduction ceased after the nappe was transported 100–200 km.

   • 2012, Joseph A. DiPietro, Landscape Evolution in the United States →ISBN, page 340:

     Ongoing accretion at a subduction zone, and the obduction of intact ophiolite slabs, are not considered to be collision.

• subduction

• obduction in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.