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A reworked isolated deposit of the Kos Plateau Tuff and its significance for dating raised marine terraces, Kos, Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2020

David J.W. Piper Open the ORCID record for David J.W. Piper [Opens in a new window]  and
Georgia Pe-Piper
David J.W. Piper*
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic), Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova ScotiaB2Y 4A2, Canada
Georgia Pe-Piper
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3, Canada
*
Author for correspondence: David J.W. Piper, Email: david.piper@canada.ca
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Abstract

The 161-ka Kos Plateau Tuff (KPT) eruption deposited widespread unwelded ignimbrites, but the Dikeos and Sympetro mountains on the SE of Kos Island blocked all but the most energetic pyroclastic flows. KPT remnants north of Sympetro mountain comprise reworked tuffite containing pumice and lithic clasts that petrologically and geochemically resemble those found in KPT unit E tephra, and reworked accretionary lapilli similar to those in KPT unit F. Tuffite is found only downslope from a 375-m-high pass between the Dikeos and Sympetro mountains, which was breached at the eruption climax by pyroclastic flows that then accelerated down the 10° north slope of Sympetro. The tuffite crops out in the palaeocliffs of a prominent terrace at an elevation of 75 m, interpreted as the transgressive ravinement surface of the first interglacial marine highstand after the KPT eruption during marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e. A similar ravinement surface cuts KPT deposits in central Kos at elevations of up to 135 m and implies post-MIS 5e uplift rates of 0.7–1.0 m ka−1, confirmed by the elevation of a previously reported raised beach beneath the KPT. A Holocene raised beach on the east coast of Kos contains pumice clasts from the Yali-4 eruption at 4–3 ka. Its elevation of 2 m above sea level is consistent with the elevation of the local MIS 5e terrace. Its present erosion results from the blocking of discharge from ephemeral streams by human infrastructure. Our study provides the first integrated chronologic and neotectonic interpretation of the prominent plateau and terrace surfaces on Kos Island.

Keywords

tuffitepumicepetrographygeochemistryraised beachSouth Aegean arc
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 157 , Issue 12 , December 2020 , pp. 2021 - 2032
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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