Most people think that rocks are extremely boring and that they
never change. The truth is that rocks tell the history of the
world and are in a constant state of change. Without studying
rocks we would never know that dinosaurs ever existed or that
all of the continents were once connected. Geology, along with
climate, plays a major part in dictating the way a civilization
lives.The Aegean peninsula (which is where Greece is located)
and the surrounding areas have a great geologic story to tell.
Hellenides This mountain range runs from the southern Alps down
to the southern tip of Greece and on into the island of Crete.
These mountains kept most of the Greek peoples restricted to the
narrow strip of land area around the Mediterranean sea. This confinement
forced the Greeks to become dependent on the sea for many of their
needs.
Greece was all once under the water of the ocean. The pillow lava and
limestone were both created in the depths of an ancient ocean.
The pillow basalt broke through the ocean floor as lava and cooled
in rounded, fluffy looking shape, giving it its name. The limestone
was created by billions and billions of shells from tiny microscopic
ocean organisms falling to the floor and being compressed over
a long period time to become rock. Mica schist is a type of rock that
has been highly metamorphosed by heat and pressure underneath
the surface of the earth. This region continues south, down the
Chalkidiki Trident and on to the islands of Agios Epstratios and
Levos. Levos (or Lesbos) is the island where the poetess Sappho
started her school for women, one of the first of its kind.
Down through the center of the peninsula run the Plagonian and
Sub-Plagonian zones. Here in the middle of the eastern coastline
lies Mt. Olympos, the home of the ancient Greek gods and the heart
of Greek mythology. Granite, limestone, and gneisses make up the
composition of these two zones. The famous battle of Thermopylae,
where Leonidas and his three hundred men made a last stand against
the Persians, took place in a pass of the mountains of Othys.
The mountain pass is actually ancient raised beaches that have
been changed into sandstone. Farther south and on to the Cycladic
islands marble becomes more common. Marble is a metamorphic rock
that used to be limestone. The marble in this area was quarried
extensively by the Greeks for building material. Some of the marble
that was quarried there was used to build the famous Parthenon in
Athens.
On Crete, the big island south of Greece, the Hellenides continue
perpendicular to the range on the mainland, east to west. These
mountains, particularly Mt. Ida, are the legendary birth place
ofZeus, who later returned and had a child, King Minos, with Europa. King Minos played a major
part in the building of the Minoan civilization. The mountains
hold the Gorge of Samaria, which is said to be the most spectacular
gorge in all of Europe.
The Southern tip of mainland Greece, the home of Sparta,
consists by in large of limestone. Limestone is a soft rock and
when hydrochloric acid touches it, the limestone will fizz, creating
water and carbon dioxide. Since this rock weathers so easily huge
caves were created near Areopolis.
All along the western edge of Greece, including Ithaca, the birth
place of Odysseus, the landscape
is also composed of limestone. This limestone was used in the
Sportive Olympia the home of the Olympic games.
The islands of Cephallonia and Zakynthos that skirt the west coast
of the mainland are often affected by large earthquakes which were
and can still be felt throughout the peninsula.