obduction

Noun

obduction (countable and uncountable, plural obductions)

1. (obsolete) The act of drawing or laying over, as a covering.
2. (largely obsolete) An autopsy.
3. 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.
   • 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.2004, Gérard M. Stampfli, Gilles D. Borel, “Chapter 3: The TRANSMED Transects in Space and Time”, in William Cavazza, François M. Roure, Wim Spakman, Gérard M. Stampfli, Peter A. Ziegler, editors...
   • These frictional forces slowed the obduction of the ophiolite onto the continental margin and obduction ceased after the nappe was transported 100–200 km.2011, Wolfgang Frisch, Martin Meschede, Ronald C. Blakey, Plate Tectonics: Continental Drift and Mountain Building, Springer, page 72