Milos is considered an prosperous economy island since prehistoric times and its prosperity is due to the wealth of the subsoil and the industriousness of its inhabitants.
In the course of time, the development of civilization creates new needs. The inhabitants of Milos discover and export new minerals, accumulate new wealth, they erect splendid buildings (theaters, stadiums), and carve beautiful statues.
There are many writers who refer to exports of Milos in the Roman Empire:
routine are those of pumice stone (used to rub and polish the marbles of Rome), milino
(kaolin, mineral white, which was sought and was used by the painters of the time), and sulfur-alum (useful in medicine); while, in the mines, continued uninterrupted their extraction. From the late nineteenth century, began the systematic extraction of other minerals also discovered and exploited by modern science.
In Milos there are large deposits of bentonite, kaolin, pozzolan; while smaller ones are sulfur,
gypsum and heavy spar. All these minerals come from ancient volcanic activity on the island, and are products of the geothermal field and the circulation of geothermal fluids within it. Of them make large annual exports, both within the country and in the international.
Perlite is a volcanic rock glassy that heated up to 900 to 11000 C, increases in volume
many times (even up to twenty times), thus making it an excellent insulator of the soil, encouraging furthermore, the development of crops in the greenhouse and discoveries.
Bentonite is used as insulation in drilling for oil.
Kaolin is a raw material in the industries of paper, porcelain, colors, sanitation and rubber,
while using pozzolan in industries that produce cement.
A mining on the coast of Milos island
Milos, abandoned mine of Theioricheia
Milos, abandoned mine of Theioricheia
Milos, portraits of miners in the mine of Theioricheia
Milos, the white rocks of Sarakiniko
Milos, the white rocks of Sarakiniko
The mining museum of Milos (www.milosminingmuseum.com)
The mining museum of Milos (www.milosminingmuseum.com)
Kimolos, called "Argentiera" by the Venetians, derives its name probably from Kimolia, which in greek means chalk, due to the geology of the island. In fact even today you take out a perlite very pale, almost white.
Perlite from the Greek islands of Milos, Kimolos and Kos is compositionally a calc-alkaline rhyolite that consists principally of glass with minor amounts of phenocrysts. Different textural types can be recognized with varying degrees of vesicularity, including a classical perlite with spheroidal fractures of 'onion-skin' type.
A wide variety of samples were expanded in a laboratory furnace and the bulk density and other properties relevant to the uses of the expanded material were determined. Only a small amount of non-expanded material remained after heating.
Once expanded, the product lends itself to most perlite applications. The coarser expanded material from Milos is best suited for concrete, plaster and horticulture. The lowest-density expanded perlite from all three islands is suitable for loose-fill insulation applications and the finer fractions are appropriate for cryogenic, filter-aid and filler purposes. Kimolos expanded perlite is probably best suited for the animal feed and thermal insulation markets.
Kimolos, former miners and farmers sitting out in a tavern in Chorio
Kimolos, the underage population is no more than 100, according to the school records.
Kimolos, perlite quarry in Prassa
Kimolos, perlite quarry in Prassa
Kimolos, perlite quarry in Prassa
Kimolos, Skiadi is a huge mushroom-shaped stone that dominates the middle of a small valley in the interior of the island. It is created by a process calledablation, in which the dust carried by the wind continuously scratches the rock, eroding the softer layers at the bottom much more than the harder layers at the top. Through centuries, the stone has been shaped into a characteristic, unique form.
The mineralogy of the island of Serifos is probably still not fully known. Until a few decades ago, the mining was still the main economic resource. Currently all the mines are inactive and mining has been replaced, as an economic resource, exploitation of tourism. As evidence of mining activity are the numerous mines and quarries and mineral processing facilities and loading of iron ore, abundant on the southwest coast of the island.
The geology of Serifos is rather complex: in the southern part of the island outcrop
sedimentary soils, while in the northern outcrop granitoid rocks. Whole
the central part is crossed by an area of contact between the granitoid batholith
and sedimentary rocks. The majority of the mineralization is developed thanks to
metamorphism of contact between the granitoid part and the sedimentary part, as well as the
most mines that develops in this area.
The real beauty and surprises mineralogical island, are, however, from the point of contact between the pluton and the wall rock: these are generally skarn hedembergitici with hedembergite more frequent quartz geodes. For inclusions hedembergite quartz is of various shades of green, more or less dark. Sometimes the quartz is associated with elegant rosettes of hematite.
Another mineral that is very famous in Serifos is the ilvaite, in beautiful blacks crystals, shiny and well formed of considerable quality.
Other mineral for which the island is famous is the andradite.
Serifos, a rock rich with minerals frames the Chora
In the 20th century, the mines of Serifos were exploited by the mining company "Societe des mines Seriphos-Spiliazeza," under the direction of German mineralogist A. Grohmann (died 1905). In the summer of 1916, in response to low pay, excessive working hours, poor safety conditions, and the company's refusal to rehire workers who had been drafted into the Greek army and recently demobilized, the 460 miners formed a union and organized a strike. Their leader was Constantinos Speras, a Serifos native educated in Egypt, who was an anarcho-syndicalist with long experience of labour struggles on the Greek mainland. In response to the strike, Grohman asked for the help of Greek authorities, who sent a 30-man gendarmerie detachment from nearby Kea. After detaining Speras and the strike committee, the gendarmerie lieutenant ordered his men to fire on the workers, who had gathered at the ore loading dock at Megalo Livadi and refused to permit a cargo ship to be loaded. Four workers were killed and a dozen wounded. The workers, supported by their wives, attacked the gendarmes with stones, killing three of them and routing the others. The freed leadership took control of island institutions and send a message placing Serifos under protection of the French fleet at Milos. This effort at collective proletarian self-organisation was cut short by the refusal of the French navy to intervene, and by the arrival of a Greek warship. Speras was arrested and charged with high treason, but released a few months later when the royalist government was ousted. Grohmann was given once again the control of the mines, after granting improved working conditions and an 8 hour workday. Speras would return to Athens and resumed his labor activities, but was assassinated in 1943, allegedly by Communist Party (KKE) maximalists.
Serifos, the abandoned mine of Megalo Livadi
Serifos, the abandoned mine of Megalo Livadi
Serifos, the Groman's head quarters, a neoclassical building, is about to completely collapse. The owners, Aggelopoulos family, recently donated it to Serifos Municipality but it might be collapsed until it is repaired.
