Editing Obduction (section)

===Transformation of a spreading ridge to a subduction zone===
Many ophiolite complexes were emplaced as thin, hot obducted sheets of oceanic lithosphere shortly after their generation by plate accretion.<ref name="Dewey, J. F. 1975"/> The change from a spreading plate boundary to a subduction plate boundary may result from rapid rearrangement of relative plate motion. A [[transform fault]] may also become a subduction zone, with the side with the higher, hotter, thinner lithosphere riding over the lower, colder lithosphere. This mechanism would lead to obduction of ophiolite complex if it occurred near a continental margin.<ref name="Dewey" />