Day 1, Locality 8

Pano Amiandos asbestos mine; roadside viewpoint.

Here the view south shows the huge extent of the former opencast workings for asbestos. Reclamation and landscaping is now removing the environmental impact and potential hazards of the site.

The steep exposures on the opposite side of the road from the viewpoint show intensely fractured, brecciated and serpentinised mantle harzburgite, the result of sea water ingress into the plutonic core of the igneous complex mainly during its later history. Serpentinisation is also responsible for the production of the veins of fibrous amphibole, which were formerly exploited. This area of the central core of the complex has suffered the greatest alteration as a result of serpentinisation.