Late Quaternay sedimentation and active faulting in the Western tip of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece

The Gulf of Corinth is one of the fastest-spreading intracontinental rifts on Earth. Present day kinematics (GPS data) indicates an opening direction oriented NNE-SSW and an opening rate increasing westward from 11 mm y-1 in the central part to 16 mm y-1 in the westernmost part. A significant part of the deformation is localized offshore, where the fault geometry was not well known yet. The high extension rate would imply a high seismic hazard if faults are not creeping. We propose an accurate map of submarine faults in the western extremity of the Gulf of Corinth. The map is based on two high-resolution seismic reflection surveys (single channel sparker) performed aboard HCMR’s R/V ALKYON, within the frame of SISCOR ANR Project. About 600 km of seismic lines were acquired, with a 200 msTWTT maximum penetration down to what we infer to represent the MIS 5 discontinuity.
Depocenters location is controlled by river deltas where up to 75m of post-LGM sediments are stored. Numerous, up to 15m thick, mass transport deposits fill the central and eastern parts. In the eastern part, the sedimentary infill is faulted by the known North Eratini, South Eratini and West Channel faults. At the longitude of the Trizonia Island, the seafloor in mainly horizontal and the only fault is the south dipping Trizonia fault. Between the Trizonia Island and the Mornos Delta, the shallower northern part of the gulf shows a diffuse pattern of deformation with faults striking mainly E-W and ESE-WNW. It shows south and north dipping normal faults, strike-slip faults, as well as an inherited basement relief. To the West, three young grabens have been identified, striking NE-SW and W-E. The northern, 6 km long, fault in this grabens system shows a clear strike-slip component (fig.1).