Introduction
Crete is the largest of the Greek Islands, with an area of 8,259 km², about 260 km from west to east and ranging between 12 and 60 km north to south. It is situated in the southern Aegean Sea, just north of latitude 35° N. The coastline is about 1,000 km long. Together with the neighbouring islands of Kithira and Antikithira to the NW and Kos, Karpathos and Rhodes to the NE, Crete forms an island arc (the Aegean Arc), parallel to the Hellenic Trench in the subduction zone formed by the collision between the European and African plates. It is tectonically active, and was much affected by earthquakes between the mid-fourth and mid-sixth centuries ad (Pirazzoli et al. 1996). The island is mountainous, rising to about 2,400 m above sea level, with some coastal plains, particularly in the north. Between the mountain ranges are tectonic basins and grabens (Fytrolakis 1980). Limestones ranging from early Palaeozoic to mid Jurassic age are extensive and karst features such as...
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Scheffers, A., Browne, T. (2010). Crete. 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_129
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