Antoine CHABROL, UR médiations, Sorbonne Université, France
Eric FOUACHE, UR médiations, Sorbonne Université, France
Vassilios KAPSIMALIS, Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Greece
The gulf of Corinth is a 115 km long and maximum 30 km wide, semi-enclosed, marine basin, located in Central Greece. It is separated from the open marine environment to the west by the Rion-Antirion strait and since 1863 to the east by the artificial canal across the Isthmus of Corinth. The eastern and northern part of the gulf is incised by various embayments (Alkyonides, Antikyra, Itea...) while the southern coastline is relatively rectilinear. The area under investigation is focused on the Itea Bay, located in the northern margin of the basin.
The northern part of the bay was filled during the Holocene by the sediments of the Pleistos and Hylaitos rivers, creating the actual plain of Itea, which contains several remarquable archaeological sites, from the early Bronze Age (coastal tell of Kirrha) to the medieval period, including the famous archaeological site of Delphi.
If the tectonic background of the gulf of Corinth is very well known, the late quaternary geomorphological dynamics of this bay must be precised. Particularly, the study of the submarine part of the bay is very important to reconstruct the several holocene palaeogeographies of this area.
An oceanographic mission, made with the Hellenic Center of Marine Research, permitted the acquisition of 125 km of high-resolution seismic profiles, associated with sonar images, single and multi-beam bathymetry and surface samplings.
The first results give us the uppermost stratigraphic configuration of the Itea bay. Several geomorphological features have been detected, such as a recent prodeltaïc prism in front of the city of Itea, deep incised palaeo-valleys in the western part of the bay and the lacustrine deltaïc pre-holocene sediments in the outer shelf to the south.
The communication will focus on the presentation of the seismic results and propose different holocene palaeogeographies, according to the geomorphological dynamics, the sea-level rise and the archaeological data in this area.
Mots clés : submerged landscapes|geoarchaeology|Greece|seismic stratigraphy|Holocene sea-level rise
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