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TheTriassic Breccias of the Ionian zone are typical evaporitedissolution collapse breccias. Several features indicate the preexistence of evaporites, while alternation of dolomites and evaporites consist a very cornmon association in the subsurface.Brecciation took place in two principal brecciationstages. The first brecciationstage started soon after deposition,during a period of subaerial exposure due to periodic seasonal desiccation and small-scale meteoric removal of intrastratal evaporites. During this stage, the carbonate beds suffered in-situ breakage and carbonate mud infiltrated into fractures.Shortly after, a major brecciation event occurred,that affected the still non-welllithified carbonate fragments,due to progressive dissolution of evaporites by meteoric water. Carbonate mud continues to be infiltratedin-between the breccia fragments. In the same time, intensive calichificationprocesses were responsible for further brecciation and reworkingof the brecciated carbonatebeds locally sediments, testifying a period of temporary regional emergence (paleosoil).The breccia matrix is characterized by microbreccioid appearance, resulting from internal brecciation of the coarser clasts. Due to early calichification,the matrix becomes enriched in oxidized clays and by pronouncedcalichificationtends to assimilate the breccia clasts, being gradually transformed into a calcrete with floating texture.Clasts microfacies types include phytoclastswith strongly impregnatedby Fe-oxideslaminae (laminar calcrete),carbonized plant tissue,lime and dolomitic mudstones with evidence of former evaporites (dolomite/calcite pseudomorphs after gypsum and/or void-fJlling anhydrite cement, molds after evaporite nodules, euhedral quartz crystals etc.), carbonate fragments pseudomorphic after evaporites, pelsparites/ intrasparites, recrystallized dolomites and dedolomites.The predominance of shallow intertidal to supratidal carbonate fragments, indicates that the strata that gave birth to the breccia, formed in a very shallow, restricted, hypersaline, lagoonal setting, evolved into sabkha sequences in the frame of a lowstand episode. Sedimentation of dolomite and evaporite is considered that has taken place during arid periods, while meteoric water influxduring the wetter intervals.During that lowstand episode, that resulted in a hiatus interval, the breccias have suffered intensive calichification. Circulating pore-fluid brines resulting from evaporation, provoked syngenetic to early diagenetic dolomitization of muds, by increase of molar Mg/Ca ratio and provided ions for evaporite nodules / crystal growth.Post-Pliocene 'to Recent subaerial exposure of the carbonate breccias, led to intensive soil-forming processes, active till today, that accentuated the brecciated appearance of the formation. These processes are responsible for the formation of porous carbonate breccias, the so-called "rauhwackes".

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The Trypali carbonate unit (Upper Triassic), which crops out mainly in central‐western Crete, occurs between the parautochthonous series (Plattenkalk or Talea Ori‐Ida series, e.g. metamorphic Ionian series) and the Tripolis nappe (comprising the Tripolis carbonate series and including a basal Phyllite–Quartzite unit). It consists of interbedded dolomitic layers, represented principally by algally laminated peloidal mudstones, foraminiferal, peloidal and ooidal grainstones, as well as by fine‐grained detrital carbonate layers, in which coarse baroque dolomite crystals and dolomite nodules are dispersed. Baroque dolomite is present as pseudomorphs after evaporite crystals (nodules and rosettes), which grew penecontemporaneously by displacement and/or replacement of the host sediments (sabkha diagenesis). However, portions of the evaporites show evidence of resedimentation. Pre‐existing evaporites predominantly consisted of skeletal halite crystals that formed from fragmentation of pyramidal‐shaped hoppers, as well as of anhydrite nodules and rosettes (salt crusts). All microfacies are characteristic of peritidal depositional environments, such as sabkhas, tidal flats, shallow hypersaline lagoons, tidal bars and/or tidal channels. Along most horizons, the Trypali unit is strongly brecciated. These breccias are of solution‐collapse origin, forming after the removal of evaporite beds. Evaporite‐related diagenetic fabrics show that there was extensive dissolution and replacement of pre‐existing evaporites, which resulted in solution‐collapse of the carbonate beds. Evaporite replacement fabrics, including calcitized and silicified evaporite crystals, are present in cements in the carbonate breccias. Brecciation was a multistage process; it started in the Triassic, but was most active in the Tertiary, in association with uplift and ground‐water flow (telogenetic alteration). During late diagenesis, in zones of intense evaporite leaching and brecciation, solution‐collapse breccias were transformed to rauhwackes. The Trypali carbonate breccias (Trypali unit) are lithologically and texturally similar to the Triassic solution‐collapse breccias of the Ionian zone (continental Greece). The evaporites probably represent a major diapiric injection along the base of the parautochthonous series (metamorphic Ionian series) and also along the overthrust surface separating the parautochthonous series from the Tripolis nappe (Phyllite–Quartzite and Tripolis series). The injected evaporites were subsequently transformed into solution‐collapse breccias.

Platform carbonate sediments of Liassic age cropping out in the area of the Pigadi-Fokianos Gulf (SE of Leonidion, Peloponnesus) have been investigated in order to determine their depositional environment. Facies analysis allowed the recognition of several microfacies types and their cyclic stacking pattern. The carbonates were deposited in a restricted inner platform environment (lagoon-peritidal domain) and are arranged into small-scale shallowingupward cycles. Palaeosol horizons containing typical pedogenic features are developed on the top of the peritidal facies or are directly superimposed on subtidal deposits, forming diagenetic caps. This implies repeated sea-level Xuctuations and periodic emersion episodes. The presence of orbitally forced cyclicity though is mostly probable, cannot be clearly documented by the available data. The studied carbonates are comparable with other coeval analogous peritidal cycles of the same age along the southern margin of the Tethys.