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.