Abstract
Late Cambrian/Early Ordovician ophiolite complexes occur in a variety of tectonic settings in the northwestern orthotectonic belt of the Newfoundland Appalachians and the British Caledonides. The orthotectonic belt is characterized by two major Paleozoic structural stages: the lower stage was deformed and metamorphosed mainly during the Early and Middle Ordovician, and the upper stage was deformed mainly during the Devonian. During the evolution of the lower stage, oceanic crust and mantle were generated by sea-floor spreading, and, shortly after, obducted as ophiolite complexes. One possibility is that all the various ophiolite occurrences belong to a once-continuous single nappe obducted across the orthotectonic belt from the south. Alternatively, the various ophiolite occurrences could have been generated by sea-floor spreading in separate rear-arc, and interarc, oceanic basins and then obducted as thin hot sheets over adjacent continental margins and metamorphic terranes.
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