QUATERNARY UPLIFT AND SEA-LEVEL CHANGE AT AN ACTIVE PLATE BOUNDARY, CYPRUS

A combination of northward underthrusting of the African plate and serpentinite diapirism resulted in progressive uplift of Cyprus during the Quaternary. The uplift was associated with the development of succession of alluvial fans and marine terraces. Marine terraces in coastal southern Cyprus are developed at 350-360 m, 110-100 m, 60-50 m, 11-8 m and 2-3 m above present sea-level. The terraces display sequences of regressive, deltaic, carbonate and siliciclastic sub-littoral, to littoral and sub-aerial type. Alluvial fans of the Fanglomerate Group crop out on the northern flanks of the Troodos Massif, forming extensive, dissected, peneplaned terraces. Later uplift resulted in the formation of channel fans and river terraces. Proximal sheetflood conglomerates pass distally into channelized braid-plain environments. On the southern margin of the Troodos Massif the Fanglomerate Group comprises braided, channelized and floodplain sequences, which pass laterally into littoral facies. Provenence studies indicate that uplift and resulting erosion of Cyprus was centred on the Troodos Massif (Mount Olympus). Radiometric dates indicate that uplift was rapid in the early and mid-Pleistocene. In the late Pleistocene-Holocene, eustatic sea-level changes and anthropogenic effects dominated, while the rate of uplift was reduced, with local submergence of southern coastal areas.