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Geological Formations

Gulf of Corinth basin

Sedimentary and Stratigraphic Formations

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The Gulf of Corinth basin, also called the Corinth rift, is an active extensional marine sedimentary basin separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece, roughly 105 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide. It began forming in the late Miocene to Pleistocene as a half graben with a basement depth of about 3 kilometers at its center, and it continues opening today at 10 to 15 millimeters a year. The extension driving it is attributed to the westward movement of the North Anatolian Fault, gravitational collapse of thickened crust, and subduction with slab rollback at the Hellenic trench.

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