Fault displacement rates and recent activity on the Ierapetra Fault Zone, Crete, Greece

Abstract:

Crete is an eastern Mediterranean island that includes the highest forearc topography of the Hellenic subduction margin, along which the African and Eurasian plates converge at rates of ~40 mm/yr. The island is currently experiencing regional uplift and is broken up by numerous active normal faults that contribute to the shaping of its topography. The largest of these onshore tectonic features is, the Ierapetra Fault Zone (IFZ), a normal fault that traverses the entire width of eastern Crete (>20 km) with a NNE strike and west diping. Here we use geomorphologic, structural and kinematic indicators to discuss fault segmentation along the IFZ and to provide quantitative constraints on the late Quaternary (~16.5 and 33 kyr) displacement rate on the fault, including evidence of Holocene earthquake activity on its central segment.