The structural framework of the Peloponnese continental margin from Zakynthos to Pylos from seismic reflection and morpho-bathymetric data

One of the objectives of the European project SEAHELLARC (SEismic and tsunami risk Assessment and mitigation scenarios in the western HELLenic ARC) was to identify the key elements controlling the geological structure of the Peloponnese continental margin in order to better understand the distribution of earthquakes in the area. Vintage multichannel seismic lines were reprocessed, interpreted and integrated with detailed morpho-bathymetric data and high-resolution single channel seismic data. According to the interpretation, most of the upper continental margin has been created within the former Alpine Gavrovo, Ionian and Apulian thrust units, including their Miocene to Quaternary cover and their Triassic salt-bearing formations. The Ionian thrust complex seems to have been continuously overthrusting the Apulian Ridge, itself characterised by strongly fractured acoustic basement features. Ductile and mobile Triassic evaporitic sequences are present in most of the major Ionian zone morpho-structures. The westward directed thrusts of the Ionian zone reached their final positions in Lower Pliocene and were followed by uplift of the ridges that is continuing in the present time. Previous compressional structures are being reactivated as normal faults with associated diapirism in the Triassic evaporites. NNE-SSW shear displacements related to trans-extensional motion may have activated "pull apart" basins with ENE-WSW normal faulting at their heads. This NNE-SSW dextral strikeslip motion agrees with the present anticlockwise rotation of the Peloponnese. The focal mechanism and the NNE-SSW distribution of aftershocks of a major earthquake in June 2008 along the Andravida fault define a major lineament that can be followed past the Katakolo Peninsula to the diapiric morpho-structures defining the eastern boundary of the Strophades basin.