The Oman Drilling Project “Multi‐Borehole Observatory” (MBO) samples an area of active weathering of tectonically exposed peridotite. This article reviews the geology of the MBO region, summarizes recent research, and provides new data constraining ongoing alteration. Host rocks are partially to completely serpentinized, residual mantle harzburgites, and replacive. Dunites show evidence for “reactive fractionation,” in which cooling, crystallizing magmas reacted with older residues of melting. Harzburgites and dunites are 65%–100% hydrated. Ferric to total iron ratios vary from 50% to 90%. In Hole BA1B, alteration extent decreases with depth. Gradients in water and core composition are correlated. Serpentine veins are intergrown with, and cut, carbonate veins with measurable 14C. Ongoing hydration is accompanied by SiO2 addition. Sulfur enrichment in Hole BA1B may result from oxidative leaching of sulfur from the upper 30 m, coupled with sulfate reduction and sulfide precipitation at 30–150 m. Oxygen fugacity deep in Holes BA3A, NSHQ14, and BA2A is fixed by the reaction 2H2O = 2H2 + O2 combined with oxidation of ferrous iron in serpentine, brucite, and olivine. fO2 deep in Holes BA1A, BA1D, and BA4A is 3–4 log units above the H2O‐H2 limit, controlled by equilibria involving serpentine and brucite. Variations in alteration are correlated with texture, with reduced, low SiO2 assemblages in mesh cores recording very low water/rock ratios, juxtaposed with adjacent veins recording much higher ratios. The proportion of reduced mesh cores versus oxidized veins increases with depth, and the difference in fO2 recorded in cores and veins decreases with depth.

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Chromite deposits in Iran are located in the ophiolite complexes, which have mostly podiform types and irregular in their settings. Exploration for podiform chromite deposits associated with ophiolite complexes has been a challenge for the prospectors due to tectonic disturbance and their distribution patterns. Most of Iranian ophiolitic zones are located in mountainous and inaccessible regions. Remote sensing approach could be applicable tool for choromite prospecting in Iranian ophiolitic zones with intensely rugged topography, where systematic sampling and conventional geological mapping are limited. In this study, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite data were used for chromite prospecting and lithological mapping in the Neyriz ophiolitic zone in the south of Iran. Image transformation techniques, namely decorrelation stretch, band ratio and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to Landsat TM and ASTER data sets for lithological mapping at regional scale. The RGB decorrelated image of Landsat TM spectral bands 7, 5, and 4, and the principal components PC1, PC2 and PC3 image of ASTER SWIR spectral bands efficiently showed the occurrence of major lithological units in the study area at regional scale. The band ratios of 5/3, 5/1, 7/5 applied on ASTER VNIR-SWIR bands were very useful for discriminating most of rock units in the study area and delineation of the transition zone and mantle harzburgite in the Neyriz ophiolitic complex. Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) technique was implemented to ASTER VNIR-SWIR spectral bands for detecting minerals of rock units and especially delineation of the transition zone and mantle harzburgite as potential zones with high chromite mineralization in the Neyriz ophiolitic complex. The integration of information extracted from the image processing algorithms used in this study mapped most of lithological units of the Neyriz ophiolitic complex and identified potential areas of high chromite mineralization (transition zone and mantle harzburgite) for chromite prospecting targets in the future. Furthermore, image processing results were verified by comprehensive fieldwork and laboratory analysis in the study area. Accordingly, result of this investigation indicate that the integration of information extracted from the image processing algorithms using Landsat TM and ASTER data sets could be broadly applicable tool for chromite prospecting and lithological mapping in mountainous and inaccessible regions such Iranian ophiolitic zones.