DEFORMATION STUDIES IN THE CORINTHIAN GULF VIA MULTI-EPOCH ANALYSIS OF GEODETIC DATA

Abstract The area of the Corinthian Gulf, in Greece, being one of the densely populated, seismicallyactive parts of Greece, is considered suitable for monitoring deformations. Thus, since 1990, theHigher Geodesy Laboratory of the NTUA and the Seismology Department of the Institut dePhysique du Globe de Paris, within the frame of European multi-disciplinary researchprogrammes concerning the evaluation of the tectonic behaviour of the Gulf, have carried outnine geodetic campaigns. A geodetic GPS control network of about 200 points, spread over anarea of 10000 km 2 on both sides of the Gulf, was established piecewise. As the study of the longperiod deformation was of interest, more than half of the network points were chosen to belongto the Hellenic triangulation network.In the present study, since the GPS data acquired are sparse both in space and time, statisticallyacceptable strain parameters are evaluated via a multi-epoch deformation model. 1. Introduction During the last decade, deformation studies combining geodetic, seismic and geotectonicobservations are being carried out on a systematic basis in various areas of Greece, since Greeceis one of the most seismically active parts of Europe (Jackson J., McKenzie D., 1988).The Gulf of Corinth is an asymmetric extending rift with recurrent seismic activity, due to anactive system of en echelon normal faults, dipping north at 40