User:MeanStreets/Geology of Cyprus

Skiriotissa Mine, South of Nicosia, a former copper mine.

Regional Geology

The geology of Cyprus is linked to the closing of the Tethys Ocean in the Mesozoic. The region is composed of two separate tectonic domains, the northern Alpine orogenic belt associated with the closing of the Tethys Ocean, and the Eastern Mediterranian Basin.

Cyprus forms part of the eastern Mediterranean basin, although the suture between the two separate domains runs across the island, marked, as it is to the east of Cyprus, by a series of ophiolites and related transform faults (Garfunkel, 1998).