EPISODIC UPLIFT DEDUCED FROM HOLOCENE SHORELINES IN THE PERACHORA PENINSULA, CORINTH AREA, GREECE

Four raised shorelines, between +1.1 m and +3.5 m, have been identified at two localities on the Perachora Peninsula and were dated by AMS C-14 to between 6400 and 1500 calibrated years ago. Uplift movements seem to have occurred in increments of 0.8 +/- 0.3 m, with a return period of about 1600 years. The last uplift coincided with a regional tectonic paroxysm, which has already been documented in several areas of the eastern Mediterranean. The average uplift rate was probably faster during the Holocene than the average since the Last Interglacial period. No important vertical displacement occurred in this area at the time of (or after) the 1981 earthquake, but a new episode of coseismic uplift may be in preparation.