Fieldwork in Cyprus

Cyprus is home to the world-famous fragment of the volcanic ocean floor that is the Troodos ophiolite, a UNESCO Global Geopark.

In this optional field course, our third-year geoscience students will unravel the formation and destruction of the now-vanished Tethys Ocean by studying the world-famousTroodos ophiolite, a UNESCO Global Geopark.

By bringing together and applying skills from all disciplines, our geoscience students will decipher how (and why) a 90-million-year-old oceanic spreading ridge has been uplifted from the deep ocean floor and transformed into an island and 2000m-high mountain range. The mountain range is still one of the most rapidly uplifting places on Earth and associated with many attendant geohazards.

This field trip allows students to investigate the exploration, exploitation and environmental management of the mineral deposits formed on the Tethys ocean floor, which have been of strategic importance to the island for millennia.