Eros Beach is the less turistic part of Vlychada. Here you are surrounded by incredible cliffs naturally carved by the wind, the volcano and the sea. Dark sand and pebbles on the waterfront, impressive white cliffs on the back.
What an artist is nature!
Eros Beach:
is composed by thick pumice layers from the famous Late Bronze Age (LBA) (well-known also as Minoan) eruption. The LBA eruption of Santorini has influenced the decline of the great Minoan civilization on Crete, making it an iconic event in both volcanology and archaeology. It discharged between 30 and 80km3 of rhyodacitic magma, mostly pyroclastic flows that entered the sea, and are preserved as ignimbrite deposits in the surrounding submarine basins. According to numerous volcanological studies, there is a consensus that the eruption occurred in four major phases with an initial precursory phase. Along Eros and Vlychada beach, volcanic products from phases P2 and mostly P3 and P4 can be recognized. A small part of phase P2 (at the bottom) products are dominated by pyroclastic surge deposits with multiple bedsets and TRM temperatures of 100–250°C. Phase P3 (in the middle) is a coarse-grained, massive, phreatomagmatic ignimbrite, still reflecting magma-water interaction and deposited at low temperatures. Phase P4 (at the top) is a tan- to pink- colored compound ignimbrite (“tan ignimbrite”), mostly fine-grained (ash and lapilli grade), with a high abundance of comminuted lithic debris in the ash fraction. The maximum elevation of the vertical cliff is 38 m.
How Does Pumice Form?
Pumice (from the Latin word, pumex, meaning foam) is a light-colored, extremely porous igneous rock that forms during explosive volcanic eruptions.
Some magmas contain several percent dissolved gas by weight while they are under pressure. Stop for a moment and think about that. Gas weighs very little at Earth's surface, but these magmas under pressure can contain several percent gas by weight held in solution.
This is similar to the large amount of dissolved carbon dioxide in a sealed bottle of carbonated beverage such as beer or soda. If you shake the container, then immediately open the bottle, the sudden release of pressure allows the gas to come out of solution, and the beverage erupts from the container in a frothy mess.
A rising body of magma, supercharged with dissolved gas under pressure, behaves in a similar way. As the magma breaks through Earth's surface, the sudden pressure drop causes the gas to come out of solution. This is what produces the enormous rush of high-pressure gas from the vent. This rush of gas from the vent shreds the magma and blows it out as a molten froth. The froth rapidly solidifies as it flies through the air and falls back to Earth as pieces of pumice. The largest volcanic eruptions can eject many cubic kilometers of material. This material can range in size from tiny dust particles to large blocks of pumice the size of a house. Large eruptions can blanket the landscape around the volcano with over 100 meters of pumice and launch dust and ash high into the atmosphere. And this is what happened here in Santorini and the cliffs you are observing are exactly a deposit of Pumice.
Physical properties
The pore spaces (known as vesicles) in pumice are actually gas bubbles that were trapped in the rock during the rapid cooling of a gas-rich frothy magma. The material cools so quickly that atoms in the melt are not able to arrange themselves into a crystalline structure. Thus, pumice is an amorphous volcanic glass known as a mineraloid.
Due to these vesicles present and the thin walls between them, pumice has a low specific gravity of 0.64. This specific gravity is lower than that of pure water (1.00) and sea water (1.03), causing it to float on water. Volcanic eruptions that occur on islands or below water can cause pumice to float on the surface of water and be driven around by winds. Large amounts of pumice that are found floating in the ocean are called “pumice rafts” and can be a risk to boats around them. However, pumice that floats on water can eventually become saturated and sink.
Composition
There are two forms of pumice: rock pumice and pumicite, which is finely grained pumice. Within these rocks are many oxides, mainly silicon dioxide, a bit of aluminum oxide and trace amounts of other oxides. The pumice in Greece is rhyolite pumice, which is white to grey in color. Trachyte pumice is also found in this color. Another type of pumice, referred to as andesite pumice is either yellow or brown in color. Finally, pumiceous basalts are found on the islands in Hawaii and are black.
Uses and Curiosities:
Pumice mining at Santorini has a long history. Indeed the the archaeological site of Akrotiri was discovered in the 1860s during excavation of pumice for export to Egypt where it was used for making cement by the Suez Canal Company during the construction of Port Said. Numerous abandoned quarries can be found on the E and SE rim of the caldera where pumicious deposits from the Minoan Eruption were thickest.
Also Some of the concrete used to construct the Pantheon by the Romans in 126 AD was lightweight material made with pumice aggregate.
Nowadays pumice as a wide variety of uses: abrasive in bar and liquid soaps such as "Lava Soap", abrasive in pencil erasers, abrasive in skin exfoliating products, fine abrasive used for polishing, absorbent in cat litter, fine-grained filter media, lightweight filler for pottery clay.
THE CACHE:
To log the cache please email your answers to the following questions. You don’t have to wait for a logging permission. I’ll contact you if there’s something unclear in your answer or you should have further questions:
1) In your opinion, how tall are the cliffs?
2) Look closely to the pumice wall: what do you see? (color, grain) Are there any inclusion or not? If yes, as you learnt from the listing, what are them? Please describe shortly your observation thoughts.
3) Thake a hanful of pumice and throw it into water. Please describe what happen and why (you can find easily the answer reading listing)
4) If you like post a photo of you or your gps and this unique landscape!
www.researchgate.net
www.wikipedia.org
www.santorini.net
www.onequartergreek.com