Submarine landslides in active margin environments - Slope stability vs. neotectonic activity on the northeastern margin of Crete, eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the processes and factors that may govern submarine slope destabilization and mass movement as well as a slope's resistance to failure in submarine active margin environments. Prior studies on this topic in active margin settings (e.g., western North America) have shown that their slopes can be peculiar, poorly understood systems with a low recurrence of slope collapse despite the paradigm of extensive, diffuse, and widespread mass movement generally associated with the tectonic activity. The focus of this study is the active margin present along the northeast margin of Crete in the Hellenic subduction zone of the eastern Mediterranean. The previously unknown distribution and recurrence rate of landslides, their failure and transport kinematics, as well as the trigger mechanisms required for sediment instability along the northeast Cretan margin are thus investigated and reconstructed. Such data help answer the open questions related to such active margin settings.