Contributions to the Geology of Cyprus

Abstract

The Tertiary beds cover the greater part of the island of Cyprus and their general distribution is shown in Bellamy's map published in 1905, while their characters and relations have been described with a certain amount of detail in Bellamy and Jukes-Browne's memoir on The Geology of Cyprus (1). Since then Philippson (37) has given a useful summary of our knowledge of the geology of the island with references to the literature up to the year 1918, and Cullis and Edge (38), though principally concerned with the igneous rocks, have more recently published a revised map with a summary of the Tertiary beds. But much work is still required before an adequate knowledge of them is obtained. The division into Eocene (Lapithos beds), Kythrean (Oligocene?), Idalian (Miocene) and Pliocene + Pleistocene Series as adopted in Bellamy's memoir, is convenient for a rough local classification of the beds. But the grouping of the Pliocene with the Pleistocene was obviously done owing to insufficient knowledge, and further subdivision of the series is undoubtedly necessary. Bellamy followed Gaudry (3) in regarding the Pliocene beds of the Carpas as representing an older stage than those of the central and southern districts. Russell (2) had previously recognized a lower series in the central valley which he called the Nicosia beds containing very abundant fossils, and an upper series which he termed the Kerynia Rock, comprising a yellow calcareous sandstone which furnishes most of the building stone in the island.