A team of scientists from the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) and New Zealand published a map uncovering hundreds of previously unknown earthquake faults in Greece.
The scientists conducted the first systematic mapping of all of Greece using high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from the Hellenic Cadastre, producing the first comprehensive database of active faults in Greece, published in the journal Scientific Data.
The researchers emphasized that, given Greece’s reliance on tourism and its ambition to serve as an energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean, a deeper understanding of seismic-source distribution is essential. This requires detailed mapping of active faults, both on land and offshore.
AFG provides the scientific community with the first national-scale map of active faults based on landscape morphology, produced at a consistent scale of 1:25,000. The database includes 3,815 fault traces grouped into 892 faults, more than half of which are documented for the first time. It also records 35 surface ruptures linked to historical earthquakes.
Overall, more than 2,000 traces are categorized as active and about 1,600 as possibly active.
The analysis shows that more than half of Greece’s active faults influence river flow, sediment deposition, and the boundaries between mountains and valleys. Some remain invisible, buried beneath younger geological layers.
