MORPHOTECTONICS OF THE PSATHOPYRGOS ACTIVE FAULT, WESTERN CORINTH RIFT, CENTRAL GREECE

PDF
Published: Jun 8, 2007
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/bgsg.16657
Keywords:
Morphotectonics Corinth rift Psathopyrgos active faults
Ch. Tsimi
Institute of Geodynamics, National Observatory of Athens
A. Ganas
Institute of Geodynamics, National Observatory of Athens
N. Soulakellis
Department of Geography, University of the Aegean
O. Kairis
Agricultural University of Athens
S. Valmis
Agricultural University of Athens
Abstract

The study area is located on the western part of the Gulf of Corinth which is considered as a paradigm of an active rift system in Greece. This rift was formed by normal slip on big faults which extend the crust of the Earth in the N-S direction. The morphotectonic indices (hypsometric curve, hypsometric integral, drainage basin asymmetry, ratio of valley floor width to valley height) have been estimated using the 20-m digital elevation model of this area and the ARC software. The normal faults of the study area have been extracted by use of a DEM mosaic of 20-m pixel size, satellite images from Landsat 7 ETM+ and SRTM 90m. Our results highlight the recent activity of the Psathopyrgos normal fault on the basis of a series of morphotectonic evidence and suggest the existence of a single fault segment for a distance of 16 km.

Article Details
  • Section
  • Tectonic- Dynamic- Applied Geology
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (preferably in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Bernard, P., Lyon-Caen, H., Briole, P., et al., 2006. Seismicity, deformation and seismic hazard in the western rift of Corinth: New insights from the Corinth Rift Laboratory (CRL), Tectonophysics, 426 (1-2), 7-30.
Clarke, P.J., Davies, R.R., England, P.C,. Parsons, B., Billiris, H., Paradissis, D., Veis, G., Cross, P.A., Denys, P.H., Ashkenazi, V., Bingley, R., Kahle, H.-G., Muller, M.-V., and Briole, P., 1998. Crustal strain in central Greece from repeated GPS measurements in the interval 1989-1997, Geophys. J. Int., 135(1), 195-214.
De Martini, P.-M., Pantosti, D., Palyvos, N., Lemeille, F., McNeill, L., and Collier, R., 2004. Slip rates of the Aigion and Eliki faults from uplifted marine terraces, Corinth Gulf, Greece, C.R.Geoscience, 336/4-5, 325-334, doi:10.1016/j.crte.2003.12.006.
Doutsos, T., and Poulimenos, G., 1992. Geometry and kinematics of active faults and their seismotectonics significance in the western Corinth - Patras rift (Greece), Journal. Structural Geology, 14 (6), 689-699.
Ganas, Α., 1997. Fault Segmentation and Seismic Hazard Assessment in the Gulf of Evia Rift, central Greece, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Reading, 369pp.
Ganas, A, Pavlides, S, and Karastathis, V., 2005. DEM-based morphometry of range-front escarpments in Attica, central Greece, and its relation to fault slip rates, Geomorphology, 65,301-319.
Ganas, Α., Shanov, S., Drakatos, G., Dobrev, N., Sboras, S., Tsimi, C, Frangov, G., and Pavlides, S., 2005. Active fault segmentation in southwest Bulgaria and Coulomb stress triggering of the 1904 earthquake sequence, Journal of Geodynamics, 40(2-3), 316-333.
Houghton, S., Roberts, G., Papanikolaou, I., McArthur, J. and Gilmour, M., 2003. New 234U-230Th coral dates from the western Gulf of Corinth: Implications for extensional tectonics, Geophysical Research Letters, 30(19), art. no. 2013.
Jackson, J.A., Gagnepain, J., Houseman, G., King, G.C.P., Papadimitriou, P., Soufleris, C, and Virieux, J. 1982. Seismicity, normal faulting, and the geomorphological development of the Gulf of Corinth (Greece): the Corinth earthquakes of February and March 1981, Earth planet Sci. Lett., 141, 377-397.
Jackson, J.A., and Leeder, M., 1994. Drainage systems and the evolution of normal faults: an example from Pleasant Valley, Nevada. Journal of Structural Geology, 16, 1041-1059.
Keller, E., and Printer, N., 1996. Active Tectonics: Earthquakes, Uplift and Landscape, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
Pavlides, S.B., Koukouvelas, I.K., Kokkalas, S., Stamatopoulos, L., Keramydas, D., and Tsodoulos, I., 2004. Late Holocene evolution of the East Eliki fault, Gulf of Corinth (Central Greece), Quaternary international, 115-116, 139-154.
Pantosti, D., De Martini, P.M., Koukouvelas, I., Stamatopoulos, L., Palyvos, N., Pucci, S., Lemeille, F., and Pavlides, S., 2004. Palaeoseismological investigations of the Aigion Fault (Gulf of Corinth,Greece), Comptes Rendus - Geoscience, 336, 335-342.
Roberts, G. P., and Koukouvelas, I., 1996. Structural and seismological segmentation of the Gulf of Corinth Fault System: implications for models of fault growth, Annali di Geofìsica, XXXIX, 619-646.
Schmidt, J., 1879. Studien über Erdbeben, Carl Schottze, Leipzig, 68-83pp.
Stein, R., King, G.C.P., and Rundle, J., 1988. The growth of geological structures by repeated earthquakes: 2 Field examples of continental dip-slip faults, Journal of Geophysical Research, 93(B11),13319-13331.
Verrios, S., Zygouri, V., and Kokkalas, S., 2004. Morhotectonic analysis in the Eliki fault zone (Gulf of Corith, Greece). Bulletin of the Geological Society of Greece, Proceedings of the 10th International Congress, Thessaloniki, April 2004, vol. XXXVI, 1706-1715.
Most read articles by the same author(s)