Yes, I've now been in Greece six times. Athens once (with family), Part IB Mapping, Part II field trip, Part III Project, last year, and this year. It's very much becoming a second home. This time definitely won in terms of number of pieces of transport and length of time 'on the road'; two trains, two planes, and then two buses to get into Kozani. I then rang Annie and Dina, who picked me up nd took me to Annie's office (which is now much spacious and well-furnished than any I've seen in Cambridge). We had a few chats about Dina's wedding, and then got back onto geology. Specifically the problem of the 'ophiolites' between Vourinos and the Vardar Zone.
Whilst the ophiolites in the Vourinos and Pindos region (including, I presume, the Rodiani-Zygosti rocks) have definitely come from the Pindos Basin, there is still uncertainty about ophiolitic bodies further to the northeast, towards the Vardar Zone. The problem is that most geologists have only worked on one zone, and so Vardar geologists all swear blind that Pindos Zone ophiolites come from their region, and vice-versa. I think that it's more likely that both groups are partially right, but this needs to be tested. Anyway, more puzzling to me are the scraps of ophiolitic material between the Vourinos and Vardar regions. The IGME maps have most of these as Palaeozoic, but again there seem to be little evidence for the absolute age. Given Annie and Dina's descriptions of these units as blocks of serpentine (from pebble to house-size), with scraps of cumulates and lavas, I suggested that these may in fact be sediments (conglomerates) coming off the Mesohellenic Ophiolite during collision. Annie wasn't very happy with this idea, but I'm not sure why. Anyway, I'm sure I'll get to see one of these bodies for myself at some stage.
After our discussion, we had another trip in Annie's Landrover before arriving in Grevena at about 5pm local time yesterday (22 hours travelling). Then napped for three hours before going to the nearby fish restaurant for octopus (and very nice it was too). Annie then took herself off to bed, and myself, Dina and her husband, Mike (Annie's son) and Anna went off for a drink before bed. A good start to what is hopefully to be another good trip!
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