Mass Wasting and Uplift on Crete and Karpathos During the Early Pliocene Related to Initiation of South Aegean Left-Lateral, Strike-Slip Tectonics
Mass wasting and uplift on Crete and Karpathos during the early Pliocene related to initiation of south Aegean left-lateral, strike-slip tectonics W.J. Zachariasse† Stratigraphy and Paleontology group, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands D.J.J. van Hinsbergen Paleomagnetic Laboratory “Fort Hoofddijk,” Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 17, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands A.R. Fortuin Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands ABSTRACT nal Miocene unconformity. Hiatuses in some related either to paroxysm (Fortuin, 1978), places in Crete and on Karpathos, however, regional uplift and erosion of the lower Pliocene Reconstruction of the vertical motion his- indicate that slope failures continued to occur (Meulenkamp et al., 1979b), submarine sliding tory of Crete and Karpathos (southeastern although on a smaller scale and less frequent due to foundering of fault blocks during the Aegean region, Greece) from the Messinian than before. early Pliocene (Peters, 1985), or slope failures to Recent revealed a previously poorly docu- Connecting the change from subsidence to during deep submergence at the beginning of the mented late Messinian phase of strong sub- uplift in the earliest Pliocene with the onset of Pliocene of a rejuvenated relief that was shaped sidence with rates of 50–100 cm/k.y. followed left-lateral, strike-slip tectonics in the south- during the terminal Miocene (van Hinsbergen by stasis during the fi rst 250 k.y. of the Plio- eastern Aegean arc would make this major and Meulenkamp, 2006). The discussion thus cene and then by uplift of 500–700 m during strike-slip system much older (by ~2 m.y.) seems to revolve, to a large extent, around the the late early to early middle Pliocene.
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