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Chapter 11- Coastal Hazards

This week the focus is Coastal Hazards, for Greece the main coastal hazard is erosion and sea levels rising. Erosion is when "geological processes of earth materials is taken or removed from one place to another such as soil or rocks by wind, water, or ice". One third which is 28.6% of the Hellenic coastline is being affected by erosion and the rate is 0.3-0.5 meters a year, the Aegan coast is prone to erosion mainly when sea level rises more than 3.5mm per year. This is caused by climate change and deforestation in Greece, and due to having dams or river channelization(helps with river flow to make it easier to navigate and controls flooding) there has not been as much sediment supply which helps shape landscapes, ecosystems, and coastal landforms in Greece. Greece has put in place hard engineering structures in order to protect the coast from eroding, those being seawalls, groins, breakwaters (protects against tides), and rock armoring as well. Around 15% of th...

Week 10: Atmosphere and Weather

Greece has what is known as a Mediterranean climate, that means mild and wet winters in the island regions and cold winters with heavy snowfalls in area with more mountains (central area) in the northern regions it is very hot dry summers. I will be focusing on Greece heat crisis, in the year 2023 they hit their record long heat wave that lasted sixteen days which caused Europes largest wildfire during July through August. Twenty eight people were killed and dozens were injured, this year August 11, 2024 a fire started in the forest due to repeated heatwaves near Varnava Village. This is mainly happening in southeastern Europe and around the Mediterranean (Europe is the fastest warming continent). With dry and strong winds that creates forest fires because the air is dry. Then there is the Etesians, wind coming from the North blowing over the Aegean Sea which helps Greec a little bit but can also worsen fire conditions. Greece takes the climate change...

Week 8: Mass Wasting Events

There are different types of Mass Movement those being mudslides, rock falls, debris flows, earth flows, and landslides. These movements on land can occur from slump (rotations landslide), soil slip (translational landslide), and rock slide (Lateral spread). They will all look different and happen because of gravity and the way it is pulling on land. On April 27, 2024 a landslide occurred on Therasia, an island on Greece. Although their was no damage done and no one got hurt, it can feel really scary watching a landslide happen. This island is prone to landslides because of steep slopes, high seismicity, and the island having interlayered volcanic lava along with pyroclastic rocks(formed by explosive volcanic eruptions), that causes the slope to be unstable. Below is a screenshot from a video of the landslide on the island. Some safety measure Greece takes for landslides are putting signs(in english, Greek, and French) in areas that are at risk, traffic restrictions (...

Week 5- Volcanos

Greece is made up of islands that has 35 volcanoes but only five are active, based on the Global Volcanism Program database there are four Holocene volcanoes. Two of those volcanoes have been active since 1800 CE but none have been active since 1960 CE and zero have currently erupted. Greece also has seven pleistocene volcanoes. Although there has not been an eruption in Greece in a very long time, there has been increased activity in the past ten years. They have systems set in play to get monitoring volcanic activity in order to stay updated and give warnings. They have a system called Geo- spatial warning systems Nisyros volcano(Greece). This case study started on December 31,2002. It has been proven when monitoring measurable changes in geophysical and geochemical parameters gives early warnings. The systems job is to have correlations, stimulations, and modeling in a graphically accurate way using real time monitored data in 4D. Mode. Those results wi...

Week 3- Earthquakes and Seismic Waves

Earthquakes occur everyday in different areas of the world, it is incredible how they occur but also consider the importance of how some countries can be ready and safe. A country that is prone to Earthquakes should take precautions and be informed on how they can improve or create a protocol to be set in place. Based on the new seismicity map, Earthquakes occur mainly in Crete, Greece which is an Island in Greece. There have been six earthquakes between the months of August 7 - August 28 of 2024. There have been two in Greece from the dates August 26 - September 2 of 2024. Out of those Earthquakes the highest Magnitude is 4.9 (Mw 5.0) and the Depth was 10km. The Mw stands for moment magnitude and it is to measure large earthquakes in order to get a proper estimate. That is according to how much energy is being released. In Europe Greece is placed as number one in seismicity and it is placed sixth place globally! Greece is made up of many islands, the biggest ea...

Week 2- Plate Boundary in Greece

Greece is located in the middle of the Eurasian Plate and African tectonic plate. Greece is known to be one of the most earthquake active country in Europe. The earthquakes go up to 7.2 inches magnitude. It was interesting find out out that Greece was in between two plate boundaries and not only one. Tectonic setting of the Aegean (Papazachos et al. 1998) References: http://erasmus.ntua.gr/en/natural_phenomena/#:~:text=Greece%20is%20located%20at%20the,Plate%20and%20the%20Eurasian%20Plate. http://erasmus.ntua.gr/en/natural_phenomena/#:~:text=Greece%20is%20located%20at%20the,Plate%20and%20the%20Eurasian%20Plate.