Controls on landscape and drainage evolution in regions of distributed normal faulting: Perachora Peninsula, Corinth Rift, Central Greece

Zones of distributed faulting with narrow (2-3 km) across-strike spacing form a common structural style within rifts, especially in accommodation zones, and contrast with crustal-scale half-grabens, where strain is localised on normal faults spaced 10-30 km apart. These contrasting styles are likely to have a significant impact on geomorphic development, sediment routing and the stratigraphic record. Perachora Peninsula, in the eastern part of the active Corinth Rift, Greece, is one such zone of distributed faulting. We analyse the topography and drainage networks developed around these closely spaced normal faults, and compare our results with published studies from crustal-scale half-grabens. We subdivide the Perachora Peninsula into a series of drainage domains and examine the tectono-geomorphic evolution of three domains that best represent the range of topographic characteristics, base levels and drainage network styles. We interpret that the perched, endorheic nature of the Asprokampos domain developed due to uplift and backtilt on offshore faults. The Pisia West domain, which drains the valley between the Skinos and Pisia Faults and responds to a perched base level, is interpreted to have experienced a complex base-level history with episodic connections to sea level. The Skinos Relay domain drains to sea level, lying on the relay ramp between the closely spaced Kamarissa and Skinos Faults. Here, interaction between the displacement fields associated with each of the closely spaced faults controls the rate and style of landscape evolution. In contrast to crustal-scale half-grabens, observations from Perachora Peninsula suggest that zones of distributed faulting may be characterised by: (i) perched, internal sediment sinks at different elevations, responding to multiple base levels; (ii) minimal fault-transverse sediment transport; (iii) interaction of uplift and subsidence fields associated with closely spaced faults, which modulate the rate and style of landscape response; and (iv) complex erosion and sedimentation histories, the evidence for which may have low preservation potential in the stratigraphic record. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists.