Tsunamigenic potential of local and distant tsunami sources threatening SW Peloponnese

The area of SW Peloponnese situated in the western segment of the Hellenic Arc is characterized by high rate of seismicity. However, the tsunami hazard in the area is poorly understood. In this paper we focus our attention in the local and distant tsunami sources threatening coastal zones of SW Peloponnese and in the evaluation of their tsunamigenic potential. It was found that only three historically documented tsunami events were produced by seismic sources activated in SW Peloponnese: 1886, 1899, 1947. However, they were only local tsunamis very likely produced by submarine Earth slumps rather than by co-seismic fault displacements. One may not rule out, however, the possibility that local tsunami sources unknown so far would activate in the future. In addition, for the tsunami hazard assessment in SW Peloponnese one may consider tsunami sources bearing potential to produce distant or even basin-wide large tsunamis such as the seismic ones of A.D. 365 and 1303 and the volcanic one of Minoan times. Indeed, numerical simulations showed that those tsunamis may have arrived at SW Peloponnese coastal zones with hazardous wave amplitudes. This applies particularly to the Minoan and the 365 events.