In the area of the settlement of Skala Neon Kydonion, impressive lava flows appear along the beach. These are thick ignimbrite lava flows that form tongues of land that enter the sea forming small peninsulas.
The ignimbrite lava flows with their characteristic reddish colors come from a great eruption of the Lepetymnos volcano that took place 17 million years ago and covered almost the whole of Lesvos, as the ignimbrite flows covered long distances and reached as far as Neon Kydonian in the east, Vatera and Makarra in the south and Antissa in the west.Ignimbrite is a volcanic rock, which is created by the solidification of thin-fluid siliceous magma that moves at high speed and contains a large percentage of hot gases, fragments of pumice and other pyroclastic materials.
The gases contained in the magma form bubbles that remain even after the liquid lava has solidified, as empty spaces inside the rock. The fusiform shape they acquire from compression gave them the name “flames”.
The reddish or dark pink color of the rocks is due to the weathering of the hematite contained in the magma.In the coastal part of the ignimbritic flows are observed honeycomb forms of disintegration (tafoni), created by sea erosion, wind, sea spray and temperature changes that cause the expansion and contraction of the metallic mineral crystals, which reduces the cohesion of the rock .