Comment on “A comparison of 10³–10⁵ year uplift rates on the South Alkyonides Fault, central Greece: Holocene climate stability and the formation of coastal notches” by J. F. Cooper, G. P. Roberts, and C. J. Underwood

Localization of Quaternary slip rates in an active rift in 105 years: An example from central Greece constrained by 234U‐230Th coral dates from uplifted paleoshorelines

“…This is consistent with the westward decrease in footwall topography and coseismic throws for the 1981 earthquake. Our interpretation differs from that of Leeder et al [2003Leeder et al [ , p. 1, 2005, who suggest that this part of the Perachora Peninsula is part of a ''uniformly-uplifting crustal terrane'' with ''little evidence for regionally-significant late-Quaternary faulting,'' and with the ''elevation of both Holocene and Late Quaternary shoreline features showing no systematic changes'' [see also Turner et al, 2008]. Our interpretation also differs in that they suggest the existence of uplifted deposits from isotope stage 5a (76 ka) onshore just to the west of Agroliou Bay (Figure 2b), whereas our preferred uplift rate scenario implies that 76 ka marine deposits would still be below present-day sea level in this location (see Figure 2f).…”

“…(i) Holocene paleoshorelines with dashed lines showing approximate positions of former sea level (see Cooper et al [2007] for more detail). The highest notch with Lithophaga is at ∼3 m, not 1.5 m as suggested by Turner et al [2008]. (j) A typical in situ Cladocora colony.…”

“…(e) Topographic profile from SRTM data across the fault along transect A-B (located in Figure 1c) located 2 km east of Lake Vouliagmeni. We interpret this to show a south dipping topographic surface that has been offset by a north dipping fault with a throw of $130 m in this location (compare with Turner et al [2008]). The base of this escarpment was ruptured in 1981, confirmed by field observations in 1994 by the authors of a surface rupture.…”

“…This was done because septa are very thin, <0.2 mm thickness, while corallite walls are between 0.3 and 0.5 mm in thickness and we suspected the thicker samples might show less alteration and be easier to clean. Sample preparation and analysis followed standard U -series methods [Edwards et al, 1987;van Calsteren and Schwieters, 1995].…”

“…(a and b) Photos showing coseismic throws along the 1981 earthquake surface ruptures that demonstrate active faulting in the study area (compare with Turner et al [2008]). Figure 4a shows a map view of the ruptures, photographed in 2001, where the slip vector indicated by the arrow is recorded by displacement of a triangular clast of rock.…”