Cyprus: a pop-up island between converging plates
We are now in Cyprus, an island located near the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean is a remnant of the long-lived Tethys Ocean that has been mostly consumed by subduction and other processes as the African and Eurasian plates converged over millions of years. Past posts have described the mountains formed by these converging plates in other parts of the circum-Mediterranean region: the Alps in Switzerland (September 2019), the Dolomites in Italy (October 2022), and Los Picos de Europa in Spain (October 2023).
The complicated geologic history of the Eastern Mediterranean
The Mediterranean’s closing has been a long and uneven process, with some collisions now completed (e.g., Swiss Alps), and other parts still quite active (e.g., what is going on in Cyprus). Although most of the rocks making up the island are more than 60 million years old, the actions that have caused it to “pop up” out of the ocean are just a few million years old. The tectonic setting of Cyprus remains highly complex, as shown in the map below.
Convergence of Africa and Eurasia continues in the Western Mediterranean, but in the Eastern Mediterranean, processes are even more complex because of the intervening Anatolian plate. Movement on transform faults (NAFZ and EAFZ) are forcing the Anatolian plate westward. North–south convergence is causing subduction of oceanic crust along the southern edge of Crete (Hellenic Arc—HA) and Cyprus (Cyprus Arc—CYA). Cyprus is also impacted by movement on transform faults, as illustrated by side-by-side arrows pointing in opposite directions on either side of fault lines that connect the Cyprus subduction zone (CYA) with the Anatolian plate.
The offshore Eratosthenes Seamount (ESM; see map above) is the feature that has caused the island to “pop up” out of the sea. This seamount is an ancient carbonate platform that rises about 1500 m (4900 ft) above the seafloor on the leading edge of the African plate. It started to be subducted beneath Cyprus about 2 million years ago. Because it is a high feature on the down-going plate, it “clogs up” the subduction zone. As a piece of continental crust, it is also more buoyant and it prevents the African plate from easily slipping downward. This has created north-south compressive stresses that have uplifted the rocks upward to become an island.
Why do geologists like to go to Cyprus?
Cyprus is a really famous place for geologists! The island’s uplift has exposed the Troodos Ophiolite Complex in the Troodos Mountains (for location, see map below). An ophiolite is a piece of oceanic lithosphere that has been uplifted from the ocean depths to be exposed on land. Along with an ophiolite sequence in Oman, the Troodos ophiolite is considered to be the most complete, best exposed and best-preserved ophiolite sequence in the world. Since the 1960’s, it has attracted great interest—it was an important piece that helped geoscientists to figure out some of the basic tenets of plate tectonic theory. The Cyprus and Oman ophiolites both formed as Africa and Eurasia have been colliding and the Tethys Ocean has been closing.
Two men in the UK who have a geological supply company (https://www.geosupplies.co.uk) also organize geologic field trips. When a friend told us about their field trip to Cyprus to see the Troodos Ophiolite Sequence, we said “YES!”—this was a location we’d been wanting to visit. Tomorrow we will join a group of geoscientists and spend the following six days perusing the ophiolitic rocks in the Troodos Mountains. Subsequent posts will be about these rocks.
The human history of Cyprus is complicated too
There is a rich archeological record of human occupation on Cyprus since about 10,000 BCE. Because of its position between three continents, many different groups have landed here and stayed for centuries at a time. Groups were Phoenicians, Venetians, Grecians (Hellenistic Period), Romans, Arab Muslims, British, and Ottoman Turks, and others. Cyprus became particularly important after copper was discovered around 2000 BCE—it subsequently became one of the biggest copper producers and trading centers in the known world. In fact, the country’s name (Cyprus) became synonymous with the metal (cuprum in Latin; cooper in English).
Prior to the field trip, we spent five days in Paphos, a beautiful coastal city with many archeological sites (see map above). Below are some photos of these sites.
Limestone along the coast
Limestone is also abundant at higher elevations around the perimeter of the Troodos Mountains. I’ll explain how they formed on top of the ophiolite in future posts.
Ironically, I published this blog yesterday before realizing there had just been a 6.2 magnitude earthquake on the Marmara fault, a section of the North Anatolian fault mentioned in my post. Our planet is active and the Anatolian plate is continuing to be forced westward!
Cyprus to you is like Northern Ecuador to me in birding. Hope the next few days are awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Keeley. I always enjoy your bird photos!
About ancient history: In the 2nd Millennium BCE, Cyprus was fought over by the leading kingdoms in the area (Egyptian, Hittite, Mycenaean, etc.) because, it being the Bronze Age, copper was a “strategic metal”. It is believed that the Greek word for copper (κύπρος) is derived from the name of the island, and the Latin and other European versions are all derived from the Greek. The name of the island itself comes from some earlier language.
Thanks for additional information Bob. Indeed, the amount of mining for copper and other important metals/minerals over thousands of years is staggering. Today we visited the site of a huge asbestos mine that only closed in 1988. The environmental damage was also staggering.