Strovolos, Lefkosia

Geological time

Pliocene Pleistocene

Age: 3.6–2.58 million years ago
Period: Late Pliocene
Formation: Lefkosia Marl Member (Lefkosia Formation)
Depositional environment: Open marine shelf of the Mesaoria Basin with marl-dominated sedimentation, periodic water-column stratification and freshwater input episodes. The record is now subsurface, covered by Quaternary alluvium.
Fossil types: Bivalves, gastropods, scaphopods, barnacles, echinoids, corals, conifer remains, calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifera
Paleoecology highlights: Warm Pliocene sea with surface temperatures around 26°C, open marine shelf with stratified water column, periodic freshwater input producing sapropelic-marly alternations, episodic seafloor ecological stress, progressive shift to shallower waters toward the end of the Pliocene

During the Late Pliocene, the area now occupied by Strovolos of Lefkosia lay beneath the warm and open Sea of Mesaoria, which stretched between the rising Pentadaktylos range to the north and Troodos to the south. Fine marls rich in microscopic shells accumulated on the muddy seafloor, while warm temperate to subtropical conditions (surface temperatures around 26°C) supported a diverse marine community: bivalves, gastropods and scaphopods, barnacles attached to hard substrates, echinoids burrowing in the mud, and locally coral colonies. Episodes of strong freshwater input from rivers draining the nearby land caused water-column stratification and alternations between anoxic sapropelic phases and well-oxygenated marls, while cold climate events drove eustatic sea-level falls. As Troodos and Pentadaktylos continued to rise, the Sea of Mesaoria progressively shallowed, eventually leading to the emergence of Cyprus.