Petra tou Romiou

Petra tou Romiou (the Rock of Romios) is a large white rock at the southwestern coast of Cyprus. The rock is very famous because Aphrodite (the goddess of love) allegedly borned from the waves here. Right now it seems to be a magnetic spot for those who have fallen in love or are just married.

The name of the rock, however, has nothing to do with Aphrodite. Romios was a byzantine folk hero who used this rock to hurl at the pirates.

I visited the place for a strange reason — I just wanted to know what type of rock it is and to take a look to see whether I notice something geologically interesting.

I did find out that the rock is a limestone breccia and there are nice grooves on the upper part which look like slickenside. Slickenside is a smooth and shiny polished face of a rock, the result of a friction between two moving blocks of rock.

This probably indicates that Petra tou Romiou was once part of a tectonic mélange. This is a mixture of very different rocks (accretionary wedge) which is pushed on top of the edge of the continental margin by the subduction process. The same process probably also brecciated the rock which was originally a reef grown on volcanic oceanic islands. There are volcanic rocks nearby, including pillows, which lend support to this hypotheses.

Petra tou Romiou. I did find out that the rock is a limestone breccia and there are nice grooves on the upper part which look like slickenside. Slickenside is a smooth and shiny polished face of a rock, the result of a friction between two moving blocks of rock.

Petra tou Romiou is composed of limestone breccia.

Slickenside on Petra tou Romiou.