Greek Islands
From GeoClasses
Contents |
Initial Summary
If you ever want to have a island getaway with beautiful beaches, rolling hills, and mountainous shores, you will want to go to Greece. Greece has 1400 islands off of the mainland. This page will help us understand how the islands formed, the climate on the islands, and the geology of the islands. My grandfather came over to the US from one of the islands of Greece. It has always been a dream of mine to go and see where he came from and meet some of my relatives. Greece is known for its travel industry, history, and beautiful diverse landscape.
Geology
Greece was a shallow sea during most of the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and even later in time periods. The Greek Islands are located on the micro plate between the Eurasian, African, and Arabian tectonic plates. These plates are moving southwest, and the southern edge is being pushed up over the African plate. The Mediterranean area is very active converging plate. The African plate is pushing up on the European Plate. This is also responsible for forming the Alps.Huge layers of limestone were formed in the area, because of the continuous submerging. During the Cretaceous period a large island formed, this run north to south around the Athens area. The limestone is being uplifted and covers the country. About two thirds of Greece is covered in limestone. The active converging plates cause a great deal of volcanic activity, but this is mostly taking place in Italy. While in Greece the volcanic activity is minimal, but they do have bad earthquakes sometimes, along with thermal springs.
The island of Crete is a fault massif, which is forming a wide arc from Peloponnese to the now Aegean Sea. The movement of the tectonic plates has caused an old land mass called Aegaeis to sink below sea level. Now all that we see of this land mass are the old mountain peaks, which have been eroded to become islands. This movement is causing a volcanic arc that runs north of Crete, this means that the island of Crete is in a very active geologic area with a great deal of earthquakes. The western part of Crete is rising faster then the eastern part. Crete has rock of limestone, which has formed into mountains; also caves are very common along with the karst landscape that has eroded to make dark red, iron rich soil. There are also high-pressure metamorphic rocks such as phyllite, schist, and sandstone.
The other islands of Greece are formed in the same way they are made with high pressure metamorphis rocks that are the crust root of an old mountain belt called Cycladic orogenic belt. The belt was seperated during the collapse of the Agean area, and the high pressure metamorphic rocks now preserve the the roots of the old mountain belt. This is now all of the islands of the Greek Isles.
Peloponnese
This is the largest island of Greece, the Pindus Mountain range is located on this island. Pindus has high peaks with a great deal of canyons and karst. This mountain range is know widely for its Meteora which are high steep boulders formed by continuous weathering by water, extreme temperatures, wind, and earthquakes. A series of earthquakes moved the sea bed upward creating the high plateau. The word Meteora means suspended rocks or in the heavens above. The rocks are composed of sandstone and conglomerate. They are believed to have been formed 60 million years ago. They are marked by horizontal lines that show the diferent levels of water from prehistoric seas.
There are monateries built on natural sandstone rock pillars that rise from the ground. They were made by hermit monks seeking refuge from the Turks. They need the height and the solitude because the boulders where hard to get to.
Climate
The climate in Greece, for the most part is Mediterranean, but because of the diverse landscape and geology of Greece the climate can be varying in different locations. Greece has three catagories; Dry Mediterranean, Continental Mediteranean, and Alpine Mediteranean.
The Dry Mediterranean climate occurs around the Aegean Islands. In the summers the weather is sunny, dry, and if it does rain there will be showers or thunderstorms. It is hot during the day and warm at night. If a heat wave should arise then it will be mild in the coastal areas. The winters are wet and there is not a lot of snowfall. If snow does fall it does not stay for long. Rain in the winter can cause some areas to flood.
The Continental Mediterranean climate is located in the mainland of Greece and central Greece. The summer and winters are different from each other. The winters are cold and sometimes bad, with a great deal of snowfall. Frosts are common in the winter. The summers are very hot and often accompanied by thunderstorms.
The Alpine Mediterranean climate is bad in the winter with a great deal of snowfall. It is like any mountainous area. The summers are cool with a few thunderstorms.
Facts
Out of the 1400 islands in the Greece has only 227 are inhabited. Most of the islands are too small or is not able to support human life.
Greece has the tenth longest coast line in the world.
Crete is the largest of the Greek isle.
80% of Greece has mountains or hills, making it Europes most mountainous country.
Mount Olympus is the highest point in Greece (around 9,570 Feet)
Greece had the first civilization of Europe.
Also Greece had some of the first city states in the world.
Many of our words are from the greek language.
Also Greece is know for historic battles and a dominating empire.
Greek mythology is a topic of interest for some.
The greek alphabet makes up our college greek letters for sororities and fraturnities.
Greece was the site of the first Olympic games.
References
Alpine Travel (2008) Geology. Retrived June 30, 2008. from http://www.alpine.gr/page.asp?id=162
Science Smith (2003) Tectonometamorphic Evolution of Cycladic Subduction Zone Rocks. Retrieved June 30, 2008. from http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Geology/Greece/GREEK_Project_2003.pdf
Show Caves of the World (July 1, 2008) Geology of Greece. Retrieved July 2, 2008.from http://www.showcaves.com/english/gr/Geology.html
Wikipedia (July 7, 2008) Greece. Retrieved July 2, 2008.from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece
Wikipedia (June 26, 2008) Meteora. Retrived July 6, 2008. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora
