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Troodos UNESCO Global Geopark
鈥淥ceanic whispers on high altitude鈥
Celebrating Earth Heritage
The mountainous Troodos UNESCO Global Geopark area is in the central part of the island with its highest peak, Olympos, at 1952 m and 57 km from the capital, Lefkosia. It has an area of 1.147 km2 and its boundary is roughly delineated by the extent of the ophiolite complex. The mountains are covered by natural forests and agricultural fields, vineyards and orchards. The uplift of the ophiolite fragmented its rocks, with radial drainage patterns creating varied and impressive landscapes.
The Troodos ophiolite is internationally known amongst geoscientists for its stratigraphic completeness and well-preserved and well-exposed plutonic, intrusive, volcanic rocks and chemical sediments. Formed 92 million years ago in the Neotethys Ocean by seafloor spreading above a subduction zone, it was uplifted and placed in a dome structure by the collision between the Eurasian and African plates. Asbestos and umber were exploited since antiquity but it was the production and trade of copper from the Cyprus-type massive sulphide deposits that made Cyprus synonymous with copper. The asbestos mine in the serpentinite, now rehabilitated, the chromite mining galleries in the dunite, the ancient copper slag heaps around the copper mines in the pillow lavas, extensive parallel dyke landscapes, spreading center graben valleys and a fossilized transform fault constitute an important geodiversity with significant contributions to the development of plate tectonic and ocean spreading theories as we know it today.
Characteristics
Designation date
2015
Country(ies)
Transnational
No
Area (ha)
114,700
Population
21,000
Density
22
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