Late-Holocene coastal depositional environments and climate changes in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece

Abstract

Multidisciplinary studies in coastal systems of the eastern Mediterranean region have proven to be excellent tools in understanding paleoenvironmental, paleoecological, and paleoclimatic changes that took place during the Holocene period, and how these changes interacted with urban development and growth. This paper presents sedimentological, high-resolution x-ray fluorescence (XRF scanning), micropaleontological, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) data from three shallow sediment cores that were retrieved from Aliki (ancient Siphai or Tipha) salt pond. The study area is located in a unique, highly tectonic geographical region, at the northeast part of the Gulf of Corinth in Greece. Beachrock deposits that form a barrier between the salt pond and the marine environment seem to play an important role in the evolution of the area. The chronological framework was set at around 3100 cal. BP by four 14C radiocarbon dates, and the evolutionary model that was established indicates four different changes taking place during this period at the study area. From around 3100 to 1600 cal. BP, a transition from a closed to an open lagoonal environment was identified, interrupted by a fluvial terrestrial deposit at around 2500 cal. BP. A shift toward a closed lagoonal system at around 1600 cal. BP and the establishment of a salt pond environment seem to correlate with tectonic activity. The study provides important information about the evolution of coastal landscape in such a tectonic active region and points the interaction between regional human activity and climatic changes during the late-Holocene period.

A 2600-year high-resolution climate record from Lake Trichonida (SW Greece)

“…4.3.1). A similar distribution has been found in other studies from the area and was interpreted as reflecting hydroclimatic variations (Emmanouilidis et al, 2019;Katrantsiotis et al, 2018;Seguin et al, 2019).…”

“…In southern Greece, high-resolution environmental archives completely covering the last 2600 years have been relatively sparse, have been often incomplete, or present divergent results (Finné et al, 2011(Finné et al, , 2019Katrantsiotis et al, 2019;Luterbacher et al, 2012), but the number of studies has been increasing recently (Emmanouilidis et al, 2018(Emmanouilidis et al, , 2019Katrantsiotis et al, 2018Katrantsiotis et al, , 2019Seguin et al, 2019Seguin et al, , 2020a. For the last 2600 years, a couple of major climatic phases and events have been identified for different regions across Europe, such as the Roman Warm Period (RWP, ca.…”

Virtual field trips as a tool for indirect geomorphological experience: a case study from the southeastern part of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece

“…Along its vast scientific significance apropos structural geology and stratigraphy, there are several areas with a vast interest regarding geomorphology, tectonics, relative sea-level changes and geoarchaeology (e.g. Gaki-Papanastassiou et al, 2007;Koukouvelas et al, 2017;Gawthorpe et al, 2018;Zhong et al, 2018;de Gelder et al, 2019;Emmanouilidis et al, 2020), making the area ideal for students to understand coastal geomorphological processes in a tectonically active area.…”

Virtual field trips as a tool for indirect geomorphological experience: A case study from the southeast part of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece

“…Along its vast scientific significance apropos structural geology and stratigraphy, there are several areas with a vast interest regarding geomorphology, tectonics, relative sea level changes as well as geoarchaeology (e.g. Gaki-Papanastassiou et al, 2007;Koukouvelas et al, 2017;Gawthorpe et al, 2018;Zhong et al, 2018;de Gelder et al, 2019;Emmanouilidis et al, 2020), making the area ideal for students to understand coastal geomorphological processes in a tectonically active area.…”