The Payson ophiolite crops out south and west of the town of Payson, Arizona, in the Arizona transition zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range.

The ophiolite is exposed over a sizable area and is little deformed, with metamorphism limited to the lower greenschist facies.

[2] Regionally, the ophiolite is thought to be overlain by the Tonto Basin Supergroup.

[3] The ophiolite is part of the Mazatzal block, a terrane 50 to 60 kilometers (31 to 37 mi) wide on the eastern end of the Arizona transition zone.

This shows that the ophiolite was emplaced by rifting of an existing island arc, which likely produced a pull-apart basin.