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Sea‐level changes and tectonics in the Quaternary extensional basin of the South Evvoikos Gulf, Greece
Author(s) -
Perissoratis C.,
Andel T.H.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
terra nova
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.353
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-3121
pISSN - 0954-4879
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3121.1991.tb00147.x
Subject(s) - geology , pleistocene , paleontology , quaternary , sedimentary depositional environment , neogene , structural basin , subsidence , cenozoic , tectonic subsidence , rift , sea level , marine transgression , tectonics , holocene , oceanography
The tectonically active South Evvoikos Gulf forms the submerged part of a young basin produced by Neogene fragmentation of the Hellenides, so furnishing an opportunity to study the earliest stages of an extensional rift. Reflection profiles show three seismo‐stratigraphic units: a thin Holocene unit A, a thick Late and Middle Pleistocene unit B, and a deformed Mesozoic‐Cenozoic basal unit C. In the eastern Gulf, at least seven alternatingly stratified and acoustically transparent subunits are related to Pleistocene sea‐level changes that episodically isolated the Gulf. Correlation with the global eustatic sea‐level curve indicates that deposition in the Gulf, formed by southeastward divergence of its northern and southern boundary faults, began during the last million years. Subsequent glacio‐eustatic sea‐level changes superimposed major variations in depositional conditions on long‐term subsidence. Lack of Pleistocene marine beds on the adjacent land implies that a high rate of subsidence confined lacustrine and marine deposition to the basin itself.