Rotation of the Semail ophiolite (Oman):: Additional Paleomagnetic data from the volcanic sequence

Thirty-two flows (247 cores) were sampled in the V1 (Geotimes) and V2 (Lasail) volcanic units of the Semail ophiolite, Oman (Aswad, Fizh, Hilti, Sarami, Wuqbah, and Tayin massifs). Paleomagnetic analysis of the samples was complicated by a large overlap of the two components of magnetization carried by the rocks: a crystalline remanent magnetization (CRM) acquired in the present day field, probably during weathering, and an older CRM probably produced by oxidation of the original titanomagnetites during hydrothermal event(s). If the magnetization carried by the V1 samples was acquired during the hydrothermal event related to the emplacement of these lava, e.g., during and/or shortly after cooling, the tectonic unity of the northern domain has to be questioned and a differential rotation considered between the Aswad and Hilti-Sarami massifs but, by the time of emplacement of the V2 series, this northern area seems to behave as one large unit. As only one set of data is available for the southern Tayin-Sumail massif, it is premature but a possible relative rotation on the order of 90 degrees can be suspected between the Hilti-Sarami and Tayin-Sumail massifs, rotation which would have occurred after emplacement of the V2 series.