Submarine petrified forest in Lesvos Greece

The island of Lesvos is located in the NE of the Aegean Sea and covers an area of 1630 square kilometres, Remains of fossil plants are found within volcanic rocks on the western part of the island. The fossilised tree trunks comprise the well-known “Petrified Forest of Lesvos” that covers an area of 15000 ha. Within this vast area several unique palaeobotanical sites showing high concentrations of fossilised tree-trunks have been discovered. In 1997 the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest initiated a program of scientific research and systematic excavations in the area odf the petrified forest in order to detect its palaeogeographical extent, relative age, palaeofloral constitution, petrification mechanism and other associated phenomena, as well as other palaeontological finds. Scientific research has been carried out during the last two years in the coastal area of Lesvos in order to explore the submarine part of the Petrified Forest of Lesvos. The project was realized by the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest with the support of the Ministry of the Aegean.