title: A vestige of Earth's oldest ophiolite.
abstract: A sheeted-dike complex within the approximately 3.8-billion-year-old Isua supracrustal belt (ISB) in southwest Greenland provides the oldest evidence of oceanic crustal accretion by spreading. The geochemistry of the dikes and associated pillow lavas demonstrates an intraoceanic island arc and mid-ocean ridge-like setting, and their oxygen isotopes suggest a hydrothermal ocean-floor-type metamorphism. The pillows and dikes are associated with gabbroic and ultramafic rocks that together make up an ophiolitic association: the Paleoarchean Isua ophiolite complex. These sheeted dikes offer evidence for remnants of oceanic crust formed by sea-floor spreading of the earliest intact rocks on Earth.
authors: Centre for Geobiology and Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. harald.furnes@geo.uib.no
authors: Harald
authors: H
authors: Furnes
authors: Maarten
authors: M
authors: de Wit
authors: Hubert
authors: H
authors: Staudigel
authors: Minik
authors: M
authors: Rosing
authors: Karlis
authors: K
authors: Muehlenbachs