Mid-Holocene tectonic geomorphology of northern Crete deduced from a coastal sedimentary archive near Rethymnon and a Late Bronze Age Santorini tsuna…

2019

Abstract The Late Bronze Age (LBA) tsunami and the A.D. 365 tsunami are supposed to have affected the northern coasts of Crete. However, near-coast sedimentary archives have been rarely investigated in this area, and sedimentary archives including palaeotsunami fingerprints are still unknown. The main objective of our research was to search for appropriate tsunami sediment traps in order to gain detailed insights into the Holocene palaeotsunami history of northern Crete. We found an excellent fine sediment archive near Pirgos, located to the west of Rethymnon. Based on a multi-electrode geoelectrical survey and an 11-m-deep sediment core, we analysed the event-geochronostratigraphical recor…

Identifying sedimentary structures and spatial distribution of tsunami deposits with GPR - examples from Spain and Greece

2011

Shallow drilling in coastal areas like southern Spain and different parts of Greece (Corinth region and Argolis Gulf) proved evidence for tsunamis. Sedimentary analyses were conducted to identify tsunamigenic deposits, but did not reveal sedimentary structures or spatial distribution of tsunamites in a regional scale. Since drilling is time-intensive and expensive (depending on extend), this method can by far not cover an entire coastal area. On the other hand, distribution and preservation of tsunamigenic deposits seems to be highly variable. We used ground penetrating radar (GPR) in combination with electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements and sedimentological research methods…

Tracing tsunami signatures of thead551 andad1303 tsunamis at the Gulf of Kyparissia (Peloponnese, Greece) using direct pushin situsensing techniques …

2020

The sedimentary and geomorphological imprint of the AD 365 tsunami on the coasts of southwestern Crete (Greece): Examples from Sougia and Palaiochora

2018

Abstract The southwestern coast of Crete, one of the most seismically active regions in Europe, experienced co-seismic crust uplift by 9 m during the Ms = 8.3 mega-earthquake that struck the eastern Mediterranean world on 21 July AD 365. An associated tsunami event caused thousands of fatalities and destroyed many coastal settlements and infrastructure between the Levante in the east and the Adriatic Sea in the northwest. So far, coastal sedimentary archives in southwestern Crete including distinct palaeotsunami fingerprints are rarely investigated. Therefore, a multi-proxy study including sedimentological, geochemical, geochronological, and microfaunal methods was conducted in order to det…

The Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Cadiz as a natural laboratory for paleotsunami research: Recent advancements

2021

International audience; After the 2004 Indian Ocean (IOT) and the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunamis, new research in tsunami-related fields was strongly stimulated worldwide and also in the Mediterranean. This research growth yields substantial advancements in tsunami knowledge.Among these advancements is the “Paleotsunami” research that has marked particular progress on the reconstruction of the tsunami history of a region. As an integration of the historical documentation available in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Cadiz areas, geological and geoarchaeological records provide the insights to define the occurrence, characteristics, and impact of tsunamis of the past. Here, we present the recent …

Holocene surface ruptures of the Rurrand Fault, Germany—insights from palaeoseismology, remote sensing and shallow geophysics

2016

The Lower Rhine Embayment in Central Europe hosts a rift system that has very low deformation rates. The faults in this area have slip rates of less than 0.1 mm/yr, which does not allow to investigate ongoing tectonic deformation with geodetic techniques, unless they cover very long time spans. Instrumental seismicity does only cover a small fraction of the very long earthquake recurrence intervals of several thousands of years. Paleoseismological studies are needed to constrain slip rates and the earthquake history of such faults. Destructive earthquakes are rare in the study area, but did occur in historic times. In 1755/56, a series of strong earthquakes caused significant destruction in…

Do active faults' clay mineral compositions affect whether earthquake ruptures they host will displace the surface?

2021

Abstracts & presentations / EGU General Assembly 2021 EGU General Assembly 2021, EGU21, online, 19 Apr 2021 - 30 Apr 2021; G��ttingen : Copernicus Gesellschaft mbH EGU21-8627, 1 Seite (2021). doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8627