EARTHQUAKE CLUSTERING IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN DURING HISTORICAL TIMES

Most coastal sectors which show evidence of Holocene coseismic uplift in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean were raised during a short per iod called here the Early Byzantine tectonic paroxysm (EBTP) between t he middle of the fourth and the middle of the sixth century A.D. The a reas uplifted at that time include Cephalonia and Zante in the Ionian Islands, Lechaion and the Perachora Peninsula in the Gulf of Corinth, the Pelion coast of Thessaly, Antikythira and the whole of western Cre te, a coastal sector near Alanya in southern Turkey, and the entire Le vant coast from Hatay (Turkey) to Syria and the Lebanon. The amount of the EBTP uplift was generally between 0.5 m and 1.0 m but reached a m aximum of about 9 m in southwestern Crete. In several areas (Zante, Pe lion coast, Antikythira, western Crete, Alanya), the EBTP uplifted sho reline is the only evidence of Holocene emergence. In other areas, how ever, a similar uplift occurred earlier in the Holocene (Levant coast) , or more recently (Cephalonia). Evidence of preseismic subsidence pri or to the EBTP uplift has been reported from Thessaly Antikythira, and Crete; in both the latter islands, the EBTP uplift was preceded by a series of about 10 coseismic small subsidence movements, each measurin g some tens of centimeters, which took place in the preceding 3000 yea rs. No evidence was observed of postseismic vertical displacements.