THE KEPHALONIA TRANSFORM-FAULT AND THE ROTATION OF THE APULIAN PLATFORM - EVIDENCE FROM SATELLITE GEODESY

This paper describes a collaborative GPS-Project to determine recent c rustal movements and deformations across the NE Ionian Sea. This regio n is characterized by riffing in the African Foreland (Pelagian Sea), subduction along the Calabrian and West Hellenic Arcs, rotation of the Italian peninsula and distributed normal faulting in Central Greece. From GPS-campaigns on the Ionian Islands and in NW Greece performed in 1989 and 1991 a kinematic field is deduced which is controlled by the deep trough following the NW coast of Kephalonia island. It is conclu ded that this prominent bathymetric feature resembles an active fault system (Kephalonia fault) which has the signature of a right-lateral t ransform fault.