the role of earthquakes in inducing sediment mass movements in the eastern korinthiakos gulf an example from the february 24 march 4 1981 activity abstract korinthiakos gulf is a narrow arm of the sea connecting the ionian and the aegean seas through the rion antirion strait and the korinth canal respectively the eastern part of korinthiakos was surveyed by the marine geology department of the institute of geology and mineral exploration of greece using a 3 5 khz subbottom profiler the survey was carried out a short time after intensive earthquake activity which occurred in the area from february 24 to march 4 1981 during this activity three major shocks of magnitudes ranging from 6 4 to 6 7 took place the subbottom profiles reveal a sediment mass which was deposited by submarine slumping in the alkyonides basin which lies at the eastern end of the studied area the slump is about 10 km long 1 5 to 2 0 km wide and its areal extent is about 16 km2 the scarp area occurs at a bathymetric depth of about 100 to 250 m in the northeastern part of the basin the scarp faces are from 10 to 15 m high and have a total areal extent of about 4 km2 the destruction of fishing nets of trawling boats and other evidence indicates that the triggering of the mass flow was effected by the earthquake activity and probably by the first major shock scarp areas and scarp faces from which sediment masses have been removed were detected in other shallow and deep sectors of the studied area indicating that mass transport processes are very common in this area of high seismicity

seismicity normal faulting and the geomorphological development of the gulf of corinth greece the corinth earthquakes of february and march 1981 three major destructive earthquakes of m s 6 7 6 4 6 4 occurred in the eastern part of the gulf of corinth in february and march 1981 associated normal faulting was observed on both the north and the south sides of the gulf examination of teleseismic local seismic surface faulting and geomorpbological data suggests that the first and second of these shocks activated major north dipping normal faults these faults control the topography and bathymetry and are related to the recent uplift and subsidence of the coastline it is probable that the first earthquake occurred on a faultwhich outcrops underwater and the second on a fault which is visible on land it appears that the third shock activated an antithetic normal fault dipping southwards on the north side of the gulf and that the overall structure of the gulf of corinth graben is asymmetric the northern antithetic fault clearly demonstrates the geomorphological changes associated with developing young normal faulting in addition we suggest that observations of recent coastline movement provide a powerful tool for identifying major active fault systems and predicting their historical role in the paleogeography of an area

upper holocene sea level changes in the west saronic gulf greece abstract along the peloponnesian coast of the saronic gulf and on the coast of aegina and poros islands submerged coastal geomorphological features related directly with submerged ancient coastal constructions indicate three distinct sea levels submerged tidal notches incised on the carbonate basement beachrocks formed in the intertidal zone and archaeological indicators such as the ancient harbour installations in kenchreai and epidaurus and on aegina island the extended coastal buildings and constructions in agios vlasis psifta and palaiokastro methana and vagionia on poros island are used to determine the age and magnitude of submersion and the extent of the upper holocene marine transgression by the correlation of geomorphological historical and archaeological indications three distinct sea levels were identified at 3 30 0 15 m 0 90 0 15 m and 0 55 0 05 m initial change in sea level occurred definitely after ad 400 100 the intermediate change is dated between ad 1586 and 1839 and the most recent change after 1839 sea transgression followed a long period of sea level stability which lasted at least 2200 years from the middle bronze age to the late roman period

geoarchaeological evidence for dredging in tyre s ancient harbour levant abstract chrono stratigraphic data from tyre s ancient northern harbour delineate extensive dredging practices during the greco roman and byzantine periods radiocarbon dates from four cores consistently cluster between ca 500 b c and 1000 a d and indicate rapid rates of sedimentation in the basin namely 10 mm yr during the greco roman and byzantine periods compared to 0 5 1 mm yr for the period 6000 4000 b c absence of strata between 4000 b c and 500 b c is not consistent with a natural base level sediment sink and cannot be interpreted as a depositional hiatus in the high stand systems tract ancient dredging is further corroborated by persistent age depth inversions within the fine grained harbour facies these data support removal of middle bronze age to persian period sediment strata with deliberate overdeepening of the harbour bottom by greco roman and byzantine societies

non linear responses of rutford ice stream antarctica to semi diurnal and diurnal tidal forcing modulation of the flow of rutford ice stream antarctica has been reported previously at semi diurnal diurnal fortnightly and semi annual periods a model that includes non linear response to tidal forcing has been shown to fit closely observations at fortnightly frequencies here we examine that model further and test its fit at a larger set of observed frequencies including the large semi annual displacement we show analytically that when forced by major tidal terms the model using a basal shear stress exponent m 3 predicts several discrete response periods from 4 hours to 0 5 years we examine a 1 5 year gps record from rutford ice stream and find that the model when forced by a numerical tide model is able to reproduce the reported semi annual signal we confirm that about 5 of the mean flow is due solely to the m 3 non linear response to tidally varying basal shear stress our best fitting set of model parameters is similar to those originally reported using a much shorter data record although with noticeably improved fit suggesting these parameters are robust we find that m 3 fits the data well but that m 2 does not furthermore we find that a small variation in flow over the 18 6 year lunar node tide cycle is expected fits to semi diurnal and diurnal terms remain relatively poor possibly due to viscoelastic effects that are not included in the model and reduced gps data quality at some discrete periods for comparison we predict the response of bindschadler ice stream and lambert glacier and show given identical model parameters a similar response pattern but with 1 2 orders of magnitude smaller variability these may still be measurable and hence useful in testing the applicability of this model to other locations

stratigraphy of late holocene deposits of the ancient harbour of marseilles southern france the late holocene stratigraphy of marseilles harbour is presented together with archaeological evi dence and radiocarbon data an anthropogenic oyster midden dated between c 4260 and 3400 14 c yr bp is followed by a period of siltation that ended the accretionary growth of an algal marl deposit this event was caused by early human settlement subsequently the coastline was subject to progradation it is argued here that the development of the e rst town of marseilles c 2600 years ago accelerated soil erosion and sediment deposition in the harbour area

geoscience of ancient mediterranean harbours abstract although much has been written on the subject of ancient mediterranean harbours the relatively new area of harbour geoarchaeology remains dispersed in the geoscience and archaeological literature over a decade of research has amassed rich and varied datasets of anthropogenically forced coastal evolution with a remarkable number of between site analogies this new research field also shows the rich potential of geoscience to reconcile important archaeological questions no single publication however has yet drawn on these geological patterns to yield a detailed overview suitable for geoscientists and environmental archaeologists the aim of this review article is to 1 discuss how ancient harbours have come to be preserved in the geological record 2 expound the basic principles and palaeoenvironmental tools underpinning ancient harbour geoarchaeology 3 outline some of the most significant research advances made and 4 discuss a new chrono stratigraphic model applicable to harbour sequences

a unique 4000 year long geological record of multiple tsunami inundations in the augusta bay eastern sicily italy abstract we present the geological evidence for a 4000 year long record of multiple tsunami inundations along the coast of the augusta bay eastern sicily and discuss its implications the research was carried out through a multi theme approach which benefited from an extraordinarily long historical record that we used to guide detailed geomorphologic and geologic surveys coring campaigns and laboratory analyses two sites named the augusta hospital and priolo reserve were selected and investigated in detail along the 25 km long coastline of augusta bay we found evidence for six possibly seven tsunami deposits three of them may be tentatively associated with the 1693 and 365 ad ionian sea historical tsunamis and the 3600 bp santorini event the other three possibly four deposits are evidence for unknown paleo inundations dated at about 650 770 ad 600 400 bc and 975 800 bc at augusta hospital site and 800 600 bc at priolo reserve site we use these ages to extend further back the historical record of tsunamis available for this coastal area the exceptional number of tsunami deposits found with this study allowed us to derive an average geologic tsunami recurrence interval in the augusta bay of about 600 years for the past 4 ka conversely the historical tsunami data for the past millennium suggest an average tsunami recurrence interval of about 250 years this difference in the average recurrence intervals suggests that only the strongest inundations may leave recognizable geological signatures at the investigated sites i e the evidence for the 1908 and 1169 tsunamis is missing but also that the geomorphological setting of the site and its erosional depositional history are critical aspects for the data recording thus an average recurrence interval derived from the geological record should be considered as a minimum figure the identification and age estimation of tsunami deposits represent a new and independent contribution to tsunami scenarios and modeling for coastal hazard assessment in civil protection applications furthermore our study cases provide new elements on tsunami deposit recognition related to exceptionally large events that occurred in the aegean sea

human influence and the changing geomorphology of mediterranean deltas and coasts over the last 6000 years from progradation to destruction phase the present geomorphology of the mediterranean s coasts is largely a product of an intricate long term relationship between nature and human societies a cradle of ancient civilisations the mediterranean has seen its shores occupied by humans since prehistory and is therefore a particularly pertinent unit of analysis the morphotectonic context and other forcing agents e g climate shaped out a highly diversified coastal morphology and generated a sediment supply regime potentially favourable to the formation of numerous open coast deltas and bay head deltas in infilled rias as sea level stabilised during the mid holocene this supply of riverine sediment has also been the key agent in mediating human occupation of the mediterranean s clastic coasts expressions of this relationship have been extensively archived in clastic coastal deposits including base level deltaic and estuarine sedimentary sinks which comprise records to explore the interactions between geosystems and the human environment the stratigraphic sequences in these coastal sedimentary archives comprise in many places a clearly identified anthropogenic signature notably in ancient harbours some of which underwent extremely rapid silting up due to massive sediment sourcing generated by new agricultural practices from the neolithic onwards increasing human influence especially over the last 3000 years has been in turn an important driver of changes in sediment supply strongly modulating deltaic development pulses of sediment supply from catchments rendered vulnerable by human perturbations during the roman period resulted in a new cycle of inception of many other deltas and in rapid delta growth e g the ebro the po the arno and the ombrone another progradation dynamic during the little ice age at a time of strong rural population growth river discharge increases technological developments and urbanisation further consolidated delta growth understanding the life cycle of these deltas since their initial formation is in turn key to unravelling the relative role of natural and anthropogenic forcing agents rapid climate changes are deemed to have contributed through both the stripping of landscapes rendered fragile by human activities and active fluvial sediment transport to the coast but disentangling climate change effects from human impacts in the mediterranean remains a challenge the patterns of subsequent deltaic growth and delta morphodynamics reflect adaptations to pulsed sediment supply river discharge variations the microtidal fetch limited context of the mediterranean and direct engineering interventions the progradation dynamic of the roman period and little ice age contrasts markedly with the situation of common coastal destabilisation over the last two centuries particularly well documented for the last 50 years this period has been characterised by reduced sediment flux to base level geosystems due to catchment reforestation retenion within reservoirs fluvial regulation and dredging resulting in the erosion of deltas and barrier lagoon and beach dune systems large stretches of shoreline and narrow coastal plains have been massively engineered for coastal defence and protection against erosion but also for the construction of marinas leisure harbours and artificial beaches resulting in the emergence of veritable artificial seafronts these interventions have collectively and progressively raised societies to a pervasive and overarching position in the geomorphic stability instability of the mediterranean s coasts a situation that will be exacerbated by pressures from sea level rise paving the way for rampant coastal erosion and delta destruction

millennial variability of rates of sea level rise in the ancient harbour of naples italy western mediterranean sea we reconstructed the late holocene relative sea level rsl evolution of the ancient harbour of naples one of the largest coastal conurbations in the mediterranean we carried out multiproxy investigations coupling archaeological evidence with biological indicators our data robustly constrain 2000 yr of non monotonic changes in sea level chiefly controlled by the complex volcano tectonic processes that characterize the area between 200 bc and ad 0 a subsidence rate of more than 1 5 mm yr enhanced the postglacial rsl rise while negligible or moderate land uplift 0 5 mm yr triggered a rsl stabilization during the roman period first five centuries ad this stabilization was followed by a post roman enhancement of the sea level rise when ground motion was negative attested by a subsidence rate of 0 5 to 1 mm yr our analysis seems to indicate very minor impacts of this nonmonotonic rsl evolution on the activities of the ancient harbour of naples which peaked from the third century bc to the second century ad after this period the progressive silting of the harbour basin made it impossible to safely navigate within the basin leading to the progressive decline of the harbour

the effects of porosity on the brittle ductile transition in sandstones sandstones with porosities of 6 0 13 9 19 9 20 9 22 and 27 6 were deformed under triaxial conditions either as whole core samples or 35 sawcut samples at confining pressure conditions of 0 1 5 10 30 50 70 90 110 and 130 mpa whole cores exhibited three types of deformational behavior 1 thoroughgoing shear fractures 2 brittle ductile transitional behavior characterized by cataclastic shear zones and 3 pervasive ductile cataclastic flow sawcut cores exhibited either 1 brittle behavior accomplished by reactivation of the sawcut or by the development of a crosscutting shear fracture or 2 penetrative ductile cataclastic flow which obliterated the sawcut the 35 sawcut cores lack the development of multiple shear zones associated with transitional brittle ductile behavior in whole cores the brittle ductile boundary in both sawcut and whole cores occurs at similar confining pressures and is dependent upon initial porosity of the sandstone increasing the confining pressure has the effect of shifting the brittle ductile boundary to lower porosities a comparison of frictional strengths and fracture strengths confirms byerlee s 1968 observation that the change from brittle to ductile behavior is related to frictional properties of the material

ice stream d flow speed is strongly modulated by the tide beneath the ross ice shelf the flow velocity of ice stream d west antarctica has been measured to vary by a factor of three over the course of a day these fluctuations are measured at the grounding line as well as upstream of the grounding line in the ice plain of ice stream d the diurnal velocity fluctations appear to be driven by the tide beneath the ross ice shelf these results suggest that there is significant and heretofore poorly understood influence of the ocean tide and of the ice shelf on the dynamics of ice stream flow

spatial distribution of sea level markers on lesvos island ne aegean sea evidence of differential relative sea level changes and the neotectonic implications article i nfo the aim of this study is to provide new data on relative sea level changes and neotectonics of the northeast ern aegean sea region eastern mediterranean through the analysis of the coastal geomorphology of lesvos the third largest greek island there is a paucity of presently available data in this sector of the aegean sea which is a tectonically active area strongly controlled by the north anatolian fault in this paper morpholog ical biological and sedimentary records of paleo sea levels have been used to reconstruct relative sea level changes to identify variations in the tectonic regimes as well as to assess the paleoseismicity in the studied areas according to the results late quaternary relative sea level changes at lesvos were not homogenous and variations in the tectonic setting played a crucial role in the coastal evolution the nw se trending faults on the southern shore of the island control a significant uplift affecting about 30 km of coastline this uplift trend is controlled by the footwall of the lesvos fault a major offshore normal fault that has been subject to relatively little quantitative investigation radiocarbon dating indicated that the last co seismic uplift took place at 3365 3963 cal yr bp and resulted in about 0 75 m of vertical displacement in contrast all the paleo sea level markers mapped in the northeastern sector were presently underwater and despite the high seismicity of the area no evidence of coastal uplift was observed in this part of the island thus the paper provides the first field evidence of a differential late quaternary evolution of lesvos island in addition results represent the first quantitative information on the activity of the lesvos fault suggesting a reconsid eration of its importance in the neotectonics of the area

tidally controlled stick slip discharge of a west antarctic ice a major west antarctic ice stream discharges by sudden and brief periods of very rapid motion paced by oceanic tidal oscillations of about 1 meter acceleration to speeds greater than 1 meter per hour and deceleration back to a stationary state occur in minutes or less slip propagates at approximately 88 meters per second suggestive of a shear wave traveling within the subglacial till a model of an episodically slipping friction locked fault reproduces the observed quasi periodic event timing demonstrating an ice stream s ability to change speed rapidly and its extreme sensitivity to subglacial conditions and variations in sea level

multiproxy assessment of holocene relative sea level changes in the western mediterranean sea level variability and improvements in the definition of the isostatic signal abstract a review of 917 relative sea level rsl data points has resulted in the first quality controlled database constraining the holocene sea level histories of the western mediterranean sea spain france italy slovenia croatia malta and tunisia we reviewed and standardized the geological rsl data points using a new multi proxy methodology based on 1 modern taxa assemblages in mediterranean lagoons and marshes 2 beachrock characteristics cement fabric and chemistry sedimentary structures and 3 the modern distribution of mediterranean fixed biological indicators these rsl data points were coupled with the large number of archaeological rsl indicators available for the western mediterranean we assessed the spatial variability of rsl histories for 22 regions and compared these with the ice 5g vm2 gia model in the western mediterranean rsl rose continuously for the whole holocene with a sudden slowdown at 7 5 ka bp and a further deceleration during the last 4 0 ka bp after which time observed rsl changes are mainly related to variability in isostatic adjustment the sole exception is southern tunisia where data show evidence of a mid holocene high stand compatible with the isostatic impacts of the melting history of the remote antarctic ice sheet our results indicate that late holocene sea level rise was significantly slower than the current one first estimates of gia contribution indicate that at least in the northwestern sector it accounts at least for the 25 30 of the ongoing sea level rise recorded by mediterranean tidal gauges such contribution is less constrained at lower latitudes due to the lower quality of the late holocene index points future applications of spatio temporal statistical techniques are required to better quantify the gradient of the isostatic contribution and to provide improved context for the assessment of 20th century acceleration of mediterranean sea level rise

liquefaction features at an archaeological site investigations of past earthquake events at the early christian basilica ancient lechaion harbour corinth greece abstract a synthesis of investigations carried out at the archaeological site of the early christian basilica located in the ancient harbour of lechaion corinth greece in order to study the origin and triggering mechanism of deformation structures observed on the temple floor is presented these surface structures are indicative of earthquake induced ground liquefaction and their relationship with the subsurface soil stratigraphy and structure is examined investigations of stratigraphic data from archaeological excavations conducted from 1956 to 1965 provide indications of artificial fill deposits overlying a sandy gravelly substratum geophysical survey of em gpr and ert provided further information regarding the substratum properties stratigraphy of the site indicating subsurface fissures and lateral spreading trends that are in agreement with the surface deformation structures lithostratigraphic data obtained from four vibracores drilled in the southern aisle of the temple suggest estuarine deposits of coarse sand to fine gravel with grain size properties indicative of layers with high liquefaction potential the results of the study suggest at least three seismic events that induced ground liquefaction at the site the first event pre dates the construction of the basilica when lechaion harbour was in operation the second event post dates the construction of the basilica potentially corresponding to the regionally damaging a d 524 earthquake followed by the third event that commensurate with the a d 551 earthquake and the destruction of the temple

the importance of pressurized subglacial water in separation and sliding at the glacier bed l effet de l eau sous glaciaire sous pression sur le processus de glissement est examine a partir d un parametre appele indice de decollement du lit qui exprime les contraintes perpendiculaires au lit et la pression d eau les donnees proviennent de trois glaciers de formes differentes une loi puissance du type de weertman avec un exposant voisin de 3 modifiee pour tenir compte de l effet de la pression des eaux sous glaciaires apparait comme etant la meilleure

palaeoenvironmental evolution of the ancient harbor of lechaion corinth gulf greece were changes driven by human impacts and gradual coastal processes or catastrophic tsunamis abstract the corinth gulf central greece is one of the most rapidly widening tectonic rifts on earth where large earthquakes with magnitudes of up 7 0 have been documented not only by instrumental records but also assessed from historical reports extending back to the 5th century bce several of these earthquakes were associated with tsunamis particularly in the western part of the gulf of particular interest is the ancient harbor of lechaion in the eastern side of corinth gulf we reexamine the hypothesis that lechaion was hit by high energy tsunami waves in the 8th 6th century bce 1st 2nd century ce and during the 6th century ce on the basis of sedimentological seismotectonic archaeological and historical data completed with field observations we support that there is no evidence for tsunami impact in lechaion local stratigraphy and environmental changes are rather interpreted by human impacts and gradual coastal processes such interpretations confirm that the tsunami potential in the east corinth gulf is relatively low

tsunamis observed in greece and the surrounding area from antiquity up to the present times abstract a new and improved catalogue of tsunamis observed in greece and the surrounding area from antiquity up to the present time is presented reliable information derived from previous catalogues as well as original historical information which has not been previously taken into account has been used as data source as far as the associated earthquakes are concerned some recent and reliable seismological catalogues have been used as data sources the main cause of the generation of tsunamis is the shallow seismic activity that occurs along the hellenic arc as well as in the internal seismic zone of the aegean area the statistics for tsunamis indicate that the tsunami hazard is low considering the area in question as a whole ten distinct coastal regions in which this hazard can be suggested as medium or high have been defined

historical and pre historical tsunamis in the mediterranean and its connected seas geological signatures generation mechanisms and coastal impacts abstract the origin of tsunamis in the mediterranean region and its connected seas including the marmara sea the black sea and the sw iberian margin in the ne atlantic ocean is reviewed within the geological and seismotectonic settings of the region a variety of historical documentary sources combined with evidence from onshore and offshore geological signatures geomorphological imprints observations from selected coastal archeological sites as well as instrumental records eyewitnesses accounts and pictorial material clearly indicate that tsunami sources both seismic and non seismic e g volcanism landslides can be found in all the seas of the region with a variable tsunamigenic potential local regional and basin wide tsunamis have been documented an improved map of 22 main tsunamigenic zones and their relative potential for tsunami generation is presented from west to east the most important tsunamigenic zones are situated offshore sw iberia in the north algerian margin in the tyrrhenian calabria and messina straits in the western and eastern segments of the hellenic arc in the corinth gulf of central greece in the levantine sea offshore the dead sea transform fault and in the eastern side of the marmara sea important historical examples including destructive tsunamis associated with large earthquakes are presented the mean recurrence of strong tsunamis in the several basins varies greatly but the highest event frequency 1 96 years is observed in the east mediterranean basin for most of the historical events it is still unclear which was the causative seismic source and if the tsunami was caused by co seismic slip by earthquake triggered submarine landslides or by a combination of both mechanisms in pre historical times submarine volcanic eruptions i e caldera collapse massive pyroclastic flows volcanogenic landslides and large submarine landslides caused important tsunamis although little is known about their source mechanisms we conclude that further investigation of the tsunami generation mechanisms is of primary importance in the mediterranean region inputs from tsunami numerical modeling as well as from empirical discrimination criteria for characterizing tsunami sources have been proved particularly effective for recent well documented aseismic landslide tsunamis e g 1963 corinth gulf 1979 cote d azur 1999 izmit bay 2002 stromboli volcano since the tsunami generation mechanisms are controlled by a variety of factors and given that the knowledge of past tsunami activity is the cornerstone for undertaking tsunami risk mitigation action future interdisciplinary research efforts on past tsunamis are needed

holocene record of slip predictable earthquakes on the kenchreai fault gulf of corinth greece abstract we present the quaternary slip history of the kenchreai fault gulf of corinth based on geomorphological palaeoseismological geo archaeological data and literally determined events we also applied a series of geomorphic indices such as the hypsometric curve asymmetry factor the stream length gradient index sl the valley floor width to valley height ratio vf the drainage basin shape bs and the mountain front sinuosity smf in drainage basins flowing perpendicular to the fault these indices are representative for longer time period and are analyzed as follows values of sl are relatively high close to the fault trace smf values range from 1 01 to 1 85 vf mean values range between 0 29 and 1 07 bs values range from 1 16 to 4 78 lateral fault growth was likely achieved by propagation primarily towards east while its western end appears to act as persistent barrier the holocene palaeoseismic history of the fault investigated by a palaeoseismological trench and 14 c dating of ten samples suggest four linear morphogenic earthquakes in the last 10 ka the kenchreai fault displays a holocene slip rate in the order of 0 15 mm a 1 and a recurrence interval ranging between 1300 and 4700 years thus the fault is classified as a fault of moderate activity with moderate to well developed geomorphic evidence of activity and an overall slip predictable earthquake model

tides and the flow of rutford ice stream west antarctica 1 surface speeds of rutford ice stream west antarctica are known to vary by around 10 20 depending on location with a fortnightly periodicity corresponding to a springneap tidal cycle the reasons for these periodic variations in flow are unclear here the possible role of tidal stress transmission upstream of the grounding line in affecting rates of basal motion is investigated it is found that nonlinear rheological effects within the till when coupled with transmission of tidal stresses within the ice that are linearly related to tidal amplitude can give rise to the type of periodic oscillations in flow observed this nonlinear interaction between tidal forcing and till deformation increases the mean ice flux across the grounding line by a few percent above what might be expected in the absence of tidal forcing periodic velocity fluctuations of this type have not been observed on other ice streams however modeling suggests that this may be due to lack of data and that such flow variations are likely to be common features of active ice streams draining into the ronne ice shelf as well as of other ice streams subjected to similar tidal forcing

beachrock occurrence characteristics formation mechanisms and impacts beachrocks are hard coastal sedimentary formations consisting of various beach sediments lithified through the precipitation of carbonate cements the objectives of this contribution are to a collate and review information on the reported occurrences characteristics and formation mechanisms of beachrocks and b consider their impacts on the coastal zone the analysis of the available information has shown that a beachrock formation is a global and diachronic phenomenon and b the great majority of beachrocks are found in tropical subtropical and low temperate latitude microtidal coasts the cementing agents of beachrocks are composed predominantly of the metastable carbonate phases high magnesian calcite hmc and aragonite ar appearing in a diverse crystalline morphology it has been suggested that cement precipitation in the coastal environment is controlled by i the physicochemical conditions ii the presence of organic compounds and microbes iii the magnitude and distribution of the wave energy along the coast and iv the textural characteristics of the constituent sediments various theories have been proposed to explain beachrock formation itself linking the phenomenon to either physicochemical or biological processes these theories however do not seem to be of universal validity and acceptance as each is able to explain only some of the reported occurrences the presence of beachrocks appears to affect beach morphodynamics by i locking the beach profile ii modifying the nearshore hydrodynamics iii changing the porous character of the beach and thus its response to wave forcing and iv differential bed erosion at the margins of the beachrock outcrops that can alter significantly the long and particularly the cross shore sediment transport therefore although relict submerged beachrock outcrops may provide some coastal protection by reducing the wave energy impinging onto the coastline modern beachrocks may promote offshore loss of unconsolidated beach sediments and buried beachrock outcropping finally the presence of beachrocks may have also significant ecological impacts as the indigenous mobile substrate fauna and flora of the beach is replaced by hard substrate benthic assemblages which are commonly arranged in hydrodynamically controlled zones

elastic dynamics and tidal migration of grounding lines modify subglacial lubrication and melting 1 we combine the dynamics of ice bed and ocean in a new elastic model for the tidal timescale migration of grounding lines on deformable foundations previous interpretations of tidal flexure using models of elastic ice shelves with fixed grounding lines were found to be inconsistent suggesting an elasticity of ice that varies spatially and temporally and that is significantly smaller than measured experimentally we argue here that with our model a consistent purely elastic interpretation can be made combining this new approach with remote sensing measurements we show that the grounding line migrates several kilometers during a tidal cycle that we can infer the effective elastic properties of the bed and that the elastic pressure of the ice leads to a hydrological barrier near the grounding line that controls subglacial hydrology our findings imply that subglacial lubrication and melting induced by the ocean thermal forcing can increase substantially during high tide

beachrock a tool for reconstructing relative sea level in the far field abstract today s understanding of sea level change developed through a combination of process based physical modelling and observational data observational data of sea level change derives from coral reefs in the far field of the former ice sheets where a geographically variable relative sea level signal is expected as a response of the earth to ocean loading given this variability and the limited geographical distribution of coral reefs there is a need to explore other non coral based sea level markers to further understand sea level change and for example to fingerprint melt water here we present beachrock as a coastal deposit suitable for relative sea level rsl observations in the far field beachrock is an intertidal deposit forming in the zone where carbonate saturated meteoric and marine water mix and p co 2 decreases we provide the conceptual framework for beachrock analysis and describe techniques suitable for analysing and dating the deposit the approach is standardised by outlining the sediment characteristics in terms of rsl indicative meaning and indicative range and is tested against published data a study conducted on coasts of the mediterranean sea exemplifies the utility of beachrock for rsl reconstruction it is shown that the precision of the reconstruction is derived from the combined uncertainty of age and tidal amplitude or tidal range the uncertainty can be reduced to half the tidal amplitude when a deposit can be ascribed to the upper or lower intertidal zone beachrock based data benefit from the lack of non quantifiable error terms such as post depositional compaction due to the instantaneous formation and high preservation potential of the deposit this underlines the high precision of beachrock based rsl reconstruction which is a prime requirement for testing and extending coral based records

cryptic intertidal microbialites in beachrock heron island great barrier reef implications for the origin of microcrystalline beachrock cement microbialites with microcolumnar growth morphology occur on the surfaces of solution enlarged crypts in modern beachrock an heron island great barrier reef australia the microbialites consist predominantly of felted aragonite but blocky mg calcite and fringes of acicular aragonite also occur a variety of microbial bodies and filaments occur within and on the surface of the microbialites although most heron beachrock is cemented by isopachous fringes of acicular aragonite irregular micritic cement is common adjacent to the microbialites the micritic cement consists predominantly of felted aragonite and contains microbial filaments and organic matter similar to those in the microbialites both the microbialite and the micritic cement are interpreted to be biologically induced although physico chemical models including co2 degassing and evaporation are commonly held to be sufficient to promote the formation of beachrock the similarity of heron cryptic beachrock microbialite with micritic beachrock cements supports the contention that some beachrock cements are biologically induced additionally the primary difference between fringes of acicular aragonite and the felts of aragonite in microbialites appears to be that the former nucleated on a well defined surface of organic matter whereas the latter nucleated within a framework of organic matter that contained irregularly disposed nucleation sites hence aragonite fringe cements may also be localized and or induced by films of organic matter c 1999 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

the effects of porosity on fault reactivation in sandstones reactivation of a preexisting weakness in a rock such as joints or fault surfaces is governed by the relationship between the coefficients of sliding friction and internal friction and the orientation of the superimposed stress field triaxial compression and sliding friction tests were conducted on sandstones with porosities of 6 14 20 21 22 and 28 at confining pressures of 0 1 5 10 30 50 70 and 90 mpa under saturated but drained conditions results of these tests indicate that porosity has a minimal effect on the coefficient of sliding friction but that the mohr failure envelopes are greatly affected by porosity these data are used to plot limiting theta angles a and b versus confining pressure for each sandstone which outline stability fields for reactivation of a preexisting surface plots for the three lowest porosity sandstones 20 have limiting angles which are greatly affected by confining pressure these sandstones exhibit four types of deformational behavior reactivation of preexisting surface crosscutting shear failure on a new fracture surface brittle ductile transitional behavior or ductile cataclastic flow the stability field diagrams exhibit a decrease in the range of limiting angles with increasing confining pressure to a singular value at the brittle ductile boundary tests conducted on 35 and 45 sawcut cores over the same experimental conditions verify the deformational behavior outlined by the stability field plots

tidal controls on the flow of ice streams the flow of many antarctic ice streams is known to be significantly influenced by tides in the past modeling studies have implemented the tidal forces acting on a coupled ice stream ice shelf system in a number of different ways but the consequences that this has on the modeled response of ice streams to tides have until now not been considered here we investigate for the first time differences in model response that are only due to differences in the way tidal forcings are implemented we find that attempts to simplify the problem by neglecting flexural stresses are generally not valid and forcing models with only changes in ocean back pressure will not capture either the correct amplitudes or length scale

quaternary evolution of the corinth rift and its implications for the late cenozoic evolution of the aegean summary we present geological and morphological observations at different scales to constrain rates of faulting and the distribution of deformation in the seismically active aegean region we focus first on the 130 km long corinth rift an asymmetric graben where a flight of terraces of marine origin are uplifted we show that the edges of the terraces lie in the footwall of the normal fault bounding the corinth rift and correspond to sea level highstands of laic pleistocene age using a detailed analysis of aerial and spot imagery supported by field observations we have mapped 10 terrace platforms and strandlines ranging in elevation from 10 to 400 m over distances of 2 to 20 km from the fault the elevation of the terraces inner edges was estimated at 172 sites with an error of 5m this data set contains a precise description of the uplift and flexure of 10 different palaeohorizontal lines with respect to the present sea level to date the deformation we correlate the corinth terraces with late pleistocene oxygen isotope stages of high sea level stands and with global sea level fluctuations using a thick elastic plate model consistent with our current understanding of the earthquake cycle and a boundary element technique we reproduce the geometry of the shorelines to constrain both mechanical parameters and the slip on the fault we show that the seismogenic layer behaves over the long term as if its elastic modulus were reduced by a factor of about 1000 all the terraces are fitted for fault slip increasing in proportion to terrace age and the component of regional uplift is found to be less than 0 3 mm yr 1 the best fits give a slip rate of 11 3 mm yr 1 on the main rift bounding fault over the last 350 kyr other geological and morphologic information allows us to estimate the total age of the main fault 1 ma and to examine the mechanical evolution of the corinth rift the minimum observed sediment thickness in the gulf places an extreme check on the results of the modelling and a lower bound on slip rate of 6 7 mm yr 1 40 per cent less than estimated with modelling even this slip rate is nearly 10 times higher than for comparable features in most of the aegean and elsewhere in the world at a larger scale the spacing and asymmetry of the rift systems in the aegean suggest strain localization in the upper mantle with slow extension starting 15 myr ago or earlier the more recent 1 myr rapid phase of rifting in corinth partly reactivated this earlier phase of extension the younger faulting in corinth appears to result from its present location in the inhomogeneous stress field process zone of the south westward propagating tip of the southern branch of the north anatolian fault we extend these relations to propose a mechanical model for the late cenozoic evolution of the aegean as the arabia europe collision progressed in eastern turkey it caused anatolia to move to the west and the north anatolian fault to propagate into the aegean where the early slow extension started to be modified about 5 ma ago the process of propagation dramatically increased the activity of some but not all of the earlier rifts the model we present is compatible with tectonic observations as well as with the seismicity the palaeomagnetic rotations and the displacement field now observed with gps and slr

a late holocene record of environmental changes from the aliki lagoon egion north peloponnesus greece abstract aliki lagoon is a small lagoon located on the micro tidal south coast of the gulf of corinth greece the sediments of the lagoon recovered in three cores provide a record of late holocene environmental change including tectonic subsidence tsunami layers and change in local vegetation and sedimentation four periods of rapid environmental changes were identified over a 5000 yr long record these date from about 4700 3000 2500 and 2000 yr bp each change is linked to activity on the egion fault a deepening of the lagoonal bottom and a rise in relative sea level six tsunami events are recorded and have been caused by earthquakes on the egion fault three events 4700 3000 and 2500 bp eliki fault 2350 40 yr bp and two more distal fault ruptures the vegetation history and pollen zones are similar to those recognised by jahns vegetation hist archaebot 2 1993 187 on the argive plain 100 km southeast of the lagoon five successive sedimentological configurations are established in relation to the time frame provided by the tectonic activity 1 crevasse splay 2 fresh to brackish water marsh 3 and 4 brackish to hypersaline blind lagoon and 5 brackish to hypersaline blind lagoon or brackish open lagoon

improving antarctic tide models by assimilation of icesat laser altimetry over ice shelves 1 assimilation of laser altimeter data from the ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat significantly improves the accuracy of ocean tide models for the ross ice shelf ris for the most energetic tidal harmonic k1 assimilation reduces the root mean square error rmse between the model and a set of 16 independent tide records on and near the ris from 6 0 to 2 8 cm and the combined rmse for the six most energetic tidal harmonics from 7 7 to 5 4 cm when only the six most recent and highest quality tide records are considered the combined rmse is 4 8 cm this value is close to the uncertainty expected from tidal analyses of the short 1 2 month validation records indicating that assessing further improvements in tide model accuracy will require development of a higher quality validation data set

upper holocene sea level changes paleogeographic evolution and its impact on coastal archaeological sites and monuments the paper presents the evolution of the geographic environment imposed by sea level changes in selected sites of the aegean sea region during the upper holocene the changes are due mainly to paroxysmic phases of the actual neotectonic evolution and to differential in time and space block movements and emerged or submerged coasts the reconstitution of these coasts is presented and in some cases natural harbor morphology is revealed the use and evolution of these sites is discussed other sites concern coastal or inland ancient settlements or constructions affected by submersion by the sea by the rise of the groundwater table or by uplift movements a general discussion on engineering measures to be applied for protection of the antiquities affected by these geographic changes closes the presentation

archaeological and geomorphological indicators of the historical sea level changes and the related palaeogeographical reconstruction of the ancient foreharbour of lechaion east corinth gulf greece abstract study of the architectural morphological and constructional features of the coastal harbour installations of the ancient foreharbour of lechaion indicates that they were built or rebuilt during the period of the roman domination of corinth and has facilitated the reconstruction of the vertical movements and the palaeogeography of the coast on the basis of the current position of the sea level indicators including beachrocks fossilized uplifted and submerged marine notches and ancient coastal harbour installations and the relationship between them the sea level during the roman operation of the harbour was determined to be 0 90 m lower than at present furthermore the subsequent abandonment of the harbour and the siltation of its constructions were determined during two successive tectonic subsidence co seismic events the sea level rose by 2 0 m in total 1 60 m during the first event and 0 40 m during the second one a strong uplift tectonic event followed and the sea level dropped by 1 10 m this regression of the sea was responsible for the present shoreline morphology determination of the sea level fluctuation at the shore of the ancient harbour of lechaion allowed the palaeogeographical reconstruction of the coast in different stages related to these changes

seismicity and associated strain of central greece between 1890 and 1988 summary we examined the seismicity of central greece between 1890 and 1988 using macroseismic and instrumental data to ask two questions 1 does the seismicity of this period reveal all the major tectonic structures that are known to be active and 2 what are the likely strains associated with the seismicity over this period many known active structures have been effectively aseismic for the last hundred years and even the inclusion of all known large events earlier than 1890 reveals no activity associated with the ne coast of evia gulf of argos or graben ne of mt parnassos it is clear that even 100 years data are inadequate for either a reasonable assessment of seismic risk or for a confident estimation of maximum magnitude however we are aware of no earthquakes in central greece during the last 200 yr that were larger than ms 7 0 it is probable that the maximum magnitude is restricted by the maximum length of fault segments which appears to be around 15 20 km the earthquakes of ms 5 8 during 1890 1988 can account for a n s displacement of around 45 70 cm with maximum and minimum estimates a factor of two greater and smaller than this across part of a 1890 1900 triangulation network in central greece that was resurveyed in 1988 the contribution of smaller events may increase this displacement by about 50 per cent this cumulative seismic displacement is similar to that estimated from the geodetic work about 100 cm but a detailed comparison of the two sets of observations will be reported elsewhere a re evaluation of all the important earthquakes of 1890 1988 in central greece is presented in the appendix which summarizes information of use to both earth scientists and engineers

episodic uplift deduced from holocene shorelines in the perachora peninsula corinth area greece four raised shorelines between 1 1 m and 3 5 m have been identified at two localities on the perachora peninsula and were dated by ams 14c to between 6400 and 1500 calibrated years ago uplift movements seem to have occurred in increments of 0 8 0 3 m with a return period of about 1600 years the last uplift coincided with a regional tectonic paroxysm which has already been documented in several areas of the eastern mediterranean the average uplift rate was probably faster during the holocene than the average since the last interglacial period no important vertical displacement occurred in this area at the time of or after the 1981 earthquake but a new episode of coseismic uplift may be in preparation

palaeotsunami deposits at the tiber river mouth ostia antica italy do they really exist abstract in this paper we test the recent hypothesis of the occurrence of five to seven tsunami generations that would have struck the ancient harbour basin of ostia italy and the lower channel of the tiber river during the last three millennia because these steady disaster events would have deep implications on our knowledge of the history of rome we reviewed the pluridisciplinary data available at the tiber river mouth considering sedimentological geomorphological micropalaeontological geochemical chronological and historical evidence there is currently no conclusive palaeoenvironmental evidence to suggest past tsunami inundations near ostia river mouths are not the best context in which to identify tsunami deposits high fluvial and coastal mobility generated by regular floods and storms hardly record single high energy events hee from floods storms or tsunamis sediments are regularly reworked at the river mouth both in the river channel and on the close shoreface mixed fluvial and marine influences and the seasonal formation of a salt wedge at the mouth of the tiber create specific estuarine assemblages for micro and macrofauna the layer called high energy event 1 hee 1 on the palaeo shoreface close to the river mouth and hee 4 5 in the point bars of the tiber channel are most probably layers reworked several times by fluvio coastal events storms and or floods hee 3 sealing the republican harbour of ostia is clearly related to flood deposits complementary analyses would be necessary to definitively identify the origins of the hee 2 and hee 7 in the harbour and hee 6 in the palaeochannel or floodplain based on the data available we show how other processes than tsunami inundations could be just as accountable for these coarse grained sediment layers storm deposit flood deposit or riverbank deposit this review puts into question the use of pluridisciplinary proxies to identify palaeotsunami deposits in addition we demonstrate how high pb concentrations constitute a robust proxy to definitively refute the presence of palaeotsunami deposits as such this study will be beneficial to a large community of specialists in coastal research

a note on fault reactivation reactivation of existing faults whose normal lies in the 1 3 plane of a stress field with effective principal compressive stresses 1 2 3 is considered for the simplest frictional failure criterion n n p where and n are respectively the shear and normal stresses to the existing fault p is the fluid pressure and is the static friction for a plane oriented at to 1 the stress ratio for reactivation is 1 3 1 cot 1 tan this ratio has a minimum positive value at the optimum angle for reactivation given by 12tan 1 1 but reaches infinity when 2 beyond which 3 0 is a necessary condition for reactivation an important consequence is that for typical rock friction coefficients it is unlikely that normal faults will be reactivated as high angle reverse faults or thrusts as low angle normal faults unless the effective least principal stress is tensile

tracking shoreline evolution in central cyclades greece using beachrocks beachrocks represent a significant paleo environmental proxy because they can record both the vertical and the horizontal evolution of the shoreline they have often been used to assess holocene shoreline evolution and crustally induced relative sea level rsl changes in the mediterranean sea in this paper we used submerged beachrocks from paros and naxos islands aegean sea greece to reconstruct the shoreline modification and provide new insights on the rsl evolution in central cyclades paros and naxos islands are of great importance in terms of archaeological evidence of coastal occupation however the evolution of their coastlines was seldom explored in this study we coupled detailed underwater surveys analysis of aerial photogrammetry microstratigraphic analysis and luminescence dating to study beachrock outcrops found down to about 6 m below the present sea level we then spatially and chronologically constrained some major palaeogeographical changes of a number of coastal sectors of the two islands furthermore the multiple analyses of beachrocks sediment coring and archaeological data suggested that rsl rose by at least 3 8 m in the last 4 0 ka and that rsl variation in the last 2 0 ka did not exceed 2 m with respect to the present mean sea level

late holocene coastal depositional environments and climate changes in the gulf of corinth greece multidisciplinary studies in coastal systems of the eastern mediterranean region have proven to be excellent tools in understanding paleoenvironmental paleoecological and paleoclimatic changes th

nonlinear interaction between ocean tides and the larsen c ice shelf system 1 we report on three gps records of flow of the larsen c ice shelf spanning 2 months to 2 years variations in speed are evident at periods from a few hours to 182 days including semi diurnal diurnal and 14 76 days at fortnightly periods the ice shelf varies by 10 from its long term speed but at diurnal timescales it is up to 100 a nonlinear relationship between ocean tides and velocity is required to explain the observed variations in flow as an initial examination we model flow as a non linear function of basal shear stress including tidal perturbations in the ice shelf grounding zone and show that the major features of the observations are reproduced notably the long period signal largely absent from the vertical tidal signal alternative explanations are discussed these observations demonstrate that the ice shelf system is highly sensitive to relatively modest changes in forcing at its boundaries

an improved model for tidally modulated grounding line migration understanding grounding line dynamics is necessary for predictions of long term ice sheet stability however despite growing observations of the tidal influence on grounding line migration this short timescale migration is poorly understood with most modeling attempts assuming beam theory to calculate displacements here we present an improved model of tidal grounding line migration that treats migration as an elastic fracture problem forced by the additional ocean water pressure from the tide this new model predicts that the grounding line cannot be assumed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium and furthermore that migration is inherently asymmetric and nonlinear with migration distances that are not proportional to the tidal load specifically for constant surface slope the grounding line migrates upstream approximately ten times further as the tide rises from mean sea level to high tide than it migrates downstream as the tide falls from mean sea level to low tide and migration distances are substantially larger than simple flotation arguments suggest numerical tests also show that the dependence of migration distance on elastic moduli and ice sheet thickness are inconsistent with predictions of beam theory for a range of realistic values finally applying the new model to observations in antarctica results in new estimates of bed slopes though these estimates remain uncertain due to imperfect knowledge of the relevant rheological parameters