ophiolite

An ophiolite is a section of the Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed above sea level and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks. Ophio is Greek for snake (ὄφις), and lite means stone from the Greek lithos (λίθος), after the often-green-color rocks (spilites and serpentinites) that make up many ophiolites.