## 2 Study Area  
### Geological Setting  
Cephalonia is located in the Ionian Islands group, a group of seven islands in the westernmost part of Greece. From the geotectonic viewpoint, Cephalonia is situated at the northwestern part of the Hellenic Arc (Figure 1), in a tectonically complex and seismically active area, where strike-slip movement prevails along the Cephalonia Transform Fault Zone (CTFZ) [51; 52; 53], generating the strong and intense seismic activity observed in the region [54]. The geological structure of Cephalonia includes alpine formations and post-alpine deposits [55; 56; 57; 58; 59; 60; 61]. The alpine formations are classified into two geotectonic units of the External Hellenides: (a) the Ionian and (b) the Paxi unit. The Ionian unit is located in the eastern part of the island and includes Triassic evaporites, Jurassic-Cretaceous limestones and the Upper Eocene-Lower Miocene flysch at the top of the sequence [55; 56]. The Paxi unit covers the rest of the island and comprises mainly carbonate rocks from the Triassic to Middle Miocene and a Middle Miocene-Early Pliocene clay-clastic flyschoid, which includes marls, clays and limestones [55; 56]. The post-alpine deposits lay unconformably over the alpine formations. They occur mainly in the western, southern and southeastern parts of Cephalonia. They mainly include a Pliocene-Calabrian sequence and Pleistocene-Holocene formations [55; 56]. The Pliocene-Calabrian sequence constitutes a marine sequence mainly observed in the eastern and western part of the Paliki peninsula and in the largest part of the Argostoli peninsula. The Middle-Upper Pleistocene-Holocene formations comprise continental deposits and are classified into Middle Pleistocene marine calcarenites, Pleistocene interglacial deposits, Pleistocene scree and Holocene deposits [55; 56]. As far as the neotectonic structure of the island is concerned, Cephalonia is composed of large fault blocks, which are distinguished from each other by major fault zones and faults [47; 55; 62]. The fault block of the Erissos peninsula is located in the northern part of the island, which is almost exclusively composed of Triassic-Middle Miocene limestones of the Paxi unit. On its south boundary lies the Agia Efmia oblique-slip reverse fault, which is observed along the southern slopes of Kalon Mt and places the Erissos fault block on the northeastern part of the Aenos Mt fault block. The Aenos and eastern Cephalonia fault block is the largest on the island. On its northern boundary lies the oblique-slip reverse Agia Efmia fault, on the west the Kontogourata-Agonas oblique-slip reverse fault, which places the northwestern part of the Aenos fault on the Paliki peninsula. To the south, it is bordered by the Aenos Mt fault zone, along the faults of which extensive amounts of scree have been formed. The Aenos fault block is mainly composed of Paxi formations, particularly of Triassic-Middle Miocene limestones in its western and central parts, while eastern Cephalonia is composed of Ionian formations, including Triassic evaporites, Jurassic-Cretaceous limestones and Upper Eocene-Lower Miocene flysch [47; 55]. The Paliki and  
Figure 1: Location map of Myrtos beach. The insets show the study site at different scales (projected coordinate system GGRS’87, EPSG:2100). Argostoli peninsulas in western and southern Cephalonia complement the puzzle of the neotectonic faults of the island. In terms of climate, the Ionian Islands group stretches roughly from the north to the south of the Ionian Sea, along the coast of western continental Greece, positioned on the boundary between the Western and the Eastern Mediterranean. The islands are situated in an area through which most of the western weather systems enter the Eastern Mediterranean region. The Ionian Islands are exposed to synoptic systems from the Northwest (the Balearic Sea, Gulf of Lions, Gulf of Genoa, and the Adriatic Sea) [63] and Southwest areas (Gulfs of Sidra and Gabes) [64,65], as well as the Ionian Sea itself.