obductions

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...