Quantifying active faulting using marine terraces, Kythera Island, Greece

Offshore islands may furnish valuable information regarding deformation rates, their controlling mechanisms, and the dynamics of the upper crust in offshore areas along subduction zones, which otherwise would be difficult to quantify by direct observations. Here we study active deformation and faulting at glacial-cycle time scales in the Kythera Island, located in the southwestern part of the Hellenic subduction zone, between Crete and the Peloponnesus. The Kythera Island exposes an outstanding sequence of more than twelve levels of marine terraces that depict the active uplift of the island. These terraces are offset by several NNW-SSE and NNE-SSW-oriented active faults. We use high-resolution topography combined with morphometric analysis to map the marine terraces and to estimate the heave and throw rates of the main faults on the island. We divide the marine terrace sequence into two groups, the higher marine terraces (260 – 480 masl) comprising composite rasa surfaces, and the lower terraces (20 – 220 masl) characterized by staircase morphologies. We focus on the two main faults of the island, defined as F₁ and F₂, which display right- and left-lateral and dip-slip displacements, offsetting the marine terrace risers and treads. We link the activity of these faults with the occurrence of intermediate-depth and strong magnitude earthquakes such as the Mw 6.6 and 6.7 that occurred in the area of Kythera in 1903 and 2006, respectively.  Further dating of marine terrace surfaces and structural analysis will be carried out in the next months in order to correlate the marine terraces with Marine Isotope Stages and to estimate heave and throw rates of the faults. Our work emphasizes the importance of carrying observations in islands to elucidate the deformation rates in offshore areas of subduction zones.