Introduction
Greece has a 13,676 km coastline, which is long for its area (131,944 sq. km). The country has been, and still is, strongly affected by tectonic and volcanic activity. The Greek peninsula was the outcome of the Alpine orogeny: it was previously part of the Tethys Sea, but with the Alpine orogenic uplift there was folding and faulting along the NW–SE trend of the Hellenides (Kronberg and Günther 1978), which led to an extremely rugged topography, with a large number of horsts and grabens (fault-bounded Âcorridors of uplift and subsidence, the horsts forming promontories and the grabens bays), extending NW–SE. Vertical displacement between the crests of these horsts and the floors of the grabens can be up to 2 km. In addition, major upwarping of the Greek peninsula has led to high spine-like mountain ranges such as the Pindos Mountains inland and the Taygetos Mountains, which run out as a peninsula to Cape Matapan (Akrotirion Tainaron) in the south-Âcentral Peloponnese....
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cundy AB, Korekaas S, Dewez T et al. (2000) Coastal wetlands as Ârecorders of earthquake subsidence in the Aegean: a case study of the 1894 Gulf of Atalanti earthquakes, central Greece. Mar Geol 170:3–26
Cundy AB, Sprague D, Hopkinson L et al. (2006) Geochemical and stratigrapohic indicators of late Holocene coastal evolution in the Gythio area, southern Peloponnese. Mar Geol 230:161–177
Kraft JC (1972) A reconnaissance of the geology of the sandy coastal areas of eastern Greece and the Peloponnese. Technical Report 9, College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware
Kraft JC, Rapp GR, Aschenbrenner SE (1980) Late Holocene paleogeomorphic reconstructions in the area of the Bay of Navarino: Sandy Pylos. J Archaeol Sci 7:187–210
Kronberg P, Günther R (1978) Crustal fracture pattern of the Aegean region. In: Close H, Roeder D, Schmidt K (eds) Alps Apennines Hellenides, Inter-Union Commission on Geodynamics scientific report 38. E. Schweizerbart’sche VerlagsbuchÂhandlung Stuttgart, Germany, pp 522–526
Lagios E, Wyss M (1983) Estimates of vertical crustal movements along the coast of Greece, based on mean sea level data. Pure Appl Geophys 121:869–887
Mariolakos I, Stiros SC (1987) Quaternary deformation of the Isthmus and Gulf of Corinth. Geology 15:225–228
Pirazzoli PA, Laborel J, Laborel-Deguen F (1999) Late Holocene Âcoseismic vertical displacements and tsunami deposits near Kynos, Gulf of Euboea. Central Greece. Phys Chem Earth PT A 24:361–367
Pirazzoli PA, Montaggioni LF, Saliège JF, Segonzac G, Thommeret Y, Vergnaud-Grazzini C (1989) Crustal block movements from Holocene shorelines: Rhodes Island, Greece. Tectonophysics 170:89–114
Pirazzoli PA, Thommeret J, Thommeret Y, Laborel J, Montaggioni LF (1982) Crustal block movements from Holocene shorelines: Crete and Antikythira (Greece). Tectonophysics 86:27–43
Poulos G, Evans G, Voulgaris G (2002) Sediment flumes and the evolution of a riverine-supplied tectonically-active coastal system: KyparisÂsiakos Gulf, Ionian Sea. Geological Society (Special Publication) 191:247–266
Pyokari M (1997) The provenance of beach sediments on Rhodes, southeastern Greece, indicated by sediment texture, composition and roundness. Geomorphology 18:315–332
Raphael CN (1969) The Plain of Elis, Greece – an archaeological approach. Mich Acad Sci 1:73–74
Soter S (1998) Holocene uplift and subsidence of the Helike delta, Gulf of Corinth, Greece. Geological Society (Special Publication) 146:41–56
Stiros SC, Marangou L, Arnold M (1994) Quaternary uplift and tilting of Amorgos Island (southern Aegean) and the 1956 earthquake. Earth Planet Sci Lett 128:65–76
Stiros SC, Papageorgiou S, Evin J (2000) Seismic coastal uplift in a region of subsidence: Holocene raised shorelines of Samos Island, Aegean Sea. Mar Geol 170:41–58
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
(2010). Greece. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_128
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_128
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8638-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8639-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences