An interdisciplinary approach to studying seismic hazard throughout Greece

P.R. Cruddace (1), P.A. Cross (1), G. Veis (2), H. Billiris (2), D. Paradissis (2), J. Galanis (2), H. Lyon-Caen (3), P. Briole (3),
B.A.C. Ambrosius (4), W.J.F. Simons (4), E. Roegies (4), B. Parsons (5), P. England (5), H.-G. Kahle (6), M. Cocard (6), P. Yannick (6),
G. Stavrakakis (7), P. Clarke (8) and M. Lilje (9)

(1) Department of Geomatic Engineering, University College London, U.K.
(2) Higher Geodesy Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, Greece (3) Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France
(4) Delft Institute for Earth-Oriented Space Research, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
(5) Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, U.K.
(6) Institut fur Geodasie und Photogrammetrie, ETH Honggerberg, Zurich, Switzerland
(7) National Observatory of Athens, Greece
(8) Department of Geomatics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
(9) National Land Survey, Gavle, Sweden

This paper describes and reviews the progress of a three year (11/97-11/00) European Commission FP4 (Climate and Natural Hazards) funded project entitled GPS Seismic Hazard in Greece (SING). A major international interdisciplinary consortium is investigating and comparing strain derived using both geodetic and seismic methods.

The specific objectives of SING are to assess strain accumulation throughout Greece, to identify areas of high seismic hazard, to develop new and more efficient operational and computational methods for GPS, and to improve our understanding of the relationships between geodetic strain, seismic catalogues and geological data. New GPS networks have been installed in regions of significant hazard and initial computations have been carried out. To date, a primary result of SING is the integration of 33 historical geodetic data sets to provide a national strain map, giving the first full picture of geodetic strain in Greece and providing the basis for the setting up of the new geodetic networks.

This paper presents an overview of the project's goals, the methodologies employed and initial results.

Keywords. GPS, seismology, geodynamics, Greece, plate tectonics, geology, seismic hazard, strain accumulation.

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