--> Abstract: Structure and Evolution of Western Corinth Rift: An Interpretation Based on New Field Data from Northern Peloponnesus, by Emmanuel N. Skourtsos and Haralambos D. Kranis; #90072 (2007)

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Structure and Evolution of Western Corinth Rift: An Interpretation Based on New Field Data from Northern Peloponnesus

Emmanuel N. Skourtsos and Haralambos D. Kranis
University of Athens, Athens, Greece

New field structural data from Northern Peloponnesus show that extensional structures with geometrical and kinematic characteristics similar to these of the Gulf of Corinth faults, are present south of the zone which has been so far considered to be the southernmost margin of the Proto-Corinth Gulf. These structures can be traced as south as the northern flanks of Mt Menalon, the northern margin of which is a WNW-EWE fault (NMF), comprising a series of segments with medium to low NNE dips. We suggest that this fault flattens below Mt Khelmos and may be linked to the inferred detachment below the Gulf. Thus, the zone between the detachment proposed by previous research and the margin of North Menalon is a large hanging-wall block, rotated southwards by the activity of the NMF and the southward rotation of this block has caused (a) the formation of closed hydrological basins (Kandila and Levidi); and (b) the rotation of the former marginal faults of the Proto-Gulf and the northward migration of tectonic activity. The evolution of the Western Corinth Rift and the gradual uplift of Northern Peloponnesus and exhumation of high-pressure metamorphic rocks are most probably connected to underplating in a back-arc environment. This is evidenced by the truncation of the NMF by NNW-SSE and N-S faults, which indicate a northward migration of the E-W observed extension in southern and central Peloponnesus.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece