Environmental analysis of cores from the Helike Delta, Gulf of Corinth, Greece

The fan delta southeast of Aigion on the southwest shore of the Gulf of Cor inth was the site of ancient Helike, a city destroyed and submerged by an e arthquake and seismic sea wave in 373 BC. Bore holes drilled on the Helike Delta yielded numerous ceramic fragments in the upper 12 meters. and a reco rd of changing local environments on the delta during the Holocene period. At about 8 m below present sea level the core profiles show a general upwar d transition from marine to lacustrine/lagoonal conditions. The transition dates from about 8 kyr SP and is probably due to the deceleration of global sea level rise at the end of the last Ice Age. The deceleration apparently induced an upward and seaward progression of a zone of green clay and silt associated with brackish fauna.