Greece is Europe’s most seismically active nation, as it is being deformed by an active subduction system and one of the world’s fastest-spreading rifts. Onshore active faults pose seismic hazard that cannot be reliably assessed in the absence of a comprehensive map of potential earthquake sources. Here, we use high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), in conjunction with hillshades and slope models, to map and characterise faults in Greece at a scale of 1:25000. The Active Faults Greece (AFG) database records a total of 3815 fault-traces assigned to 892 interpreted faults. Of the AFG traces, 53% were mapped here for the first time, with their geometries and slip-sense constrained by displacement of landscape features. AFG includes >2000 active and 1632 probably active fault-traces, while 30 traces result from historic surface-rupturing earthquakes since 464 BC. About 57% of faults exhibit strong depositional control (DC) on sedimentation patterns, with active faults being characterised by approximately equal numbers of sharp (32%), moderate (29%) and rounded (29%) scarps. AFG is the first fault database in Greece generated using nationwide interpretation of geomorphology and has applications in paleoseismology, seismic-hazard assessment, mineral-resources exploration, and resilience planning.
Data Access:
- Download archive version via GFZ Data Services (upper left)
- Web-Map Server: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a6c85b1edf9d4d17a3f01a70cef6d2b2
- GIS Users: https://services2.arcgis.com/T7iULq65Kp9Elquk/arcgis/rest/services/Active_Faults_Greece/FeatureServer
- Layerfiles for use in ArcGIS Pro and QGIS: https://noaig.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/4b93c25b931744dabc4851abf9c8ae38/data
Central Europe is an intraplate domain which is characterized by low to moderate seismicity with records of larger seismic events occurring in historical and recent times. These records of seismicity are restricted to just over one thousand years. This does not reflect the long seismic cycles in Central Europe which are expected to be in the order of tens of thousands of years.
Therefore, we have developed a paleoseismic database (PalSeisDB) that documents the records of paleoseismic evidence (trenches, soft-sediment deformation, mass movements, etc.) and extends the earthquake record to at least one seismic cycle. It is intended to serve as one important basis for future seismic hazard assessments. In the compilation of PalSeisDB, paleoseismic evidence features are documented at 129 different locations in the area of Germany and adjacent regions.
A brief explanation of the folder structure, file list and file contents included in the data publication of PalSeisDB is provided in the data description .A detailed explanation of the data collection, the content of the data files and the table headers is available (Hürtgen et al., 2020). A full list of source references for PalSeisDB is provided in Hürtgen (2017, Appendix 8.3, p. 128 ff) and also included in the zip folder here