Seismic coastal uplift in a region of subsidence: Holocent raised shorelines of Samos Island, Aegean Sea, Greece

摘要

At least three raised shorelines, micro-benches and notches, spanning a distance of more than 10 km and marked by a well-preserved marine fauna have been identified along the NW coast of Samos Island, Aegean Sea, and area hitherto assumed to be characterised by a Holocene marine transgression. These fossil shorelines are nearly horizontal, approximately 0.6, 1.1 and 13 m above sea level, and can be assigned to hitherto unnoticed earthquakes, which occurred approximately 500, 3600-3900 and possibly 1500 years ago. Some evidence of Quaternary and longer-term uplift has been found as well. The observed uplift Hwy be related to a zone of intense seismicity and faulting following the Great Meander (Buyuk Menderes) River graben in Western Anatolia, but its structural explanation is not clear. New evidence indicates that the geomorphological evolution of Samos Island and of the wider Eastern Aegean is not simply a result of marine transgression and of regional-scale tectonics, but also of earthquakes, and that local-scale tectonics are responsible for the evolution and present-day morphology of at least a part of the coast of Samos Island, as well as of other Aegean coasts.