AFG - Active Faults Greece: a comprehensive geomorphology-based 1:25,000 fault database

Sci Data. 2025 Nov 21;12(1):1853. doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-06283-z.

ABSTRACT

Greece is Europe's most seismically active country, as it is being deformed by an active subduction-system and one of the world's fastest-spreading continental rifts. Onshore active faults pose seismic-hazard that cannot be reliably assessed in the absence of a comprehensive map of potential earthquake sources. Here, we use high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), in conjunction with hillshades and slope-models, to map and characterise faults in Greece at a scale of 1:25000. The Active Faults Greece (AFG) database records 3815 fault-traces assigned to 892 interpreted faults. Of these traces, 53% were mapped here for the first time, with their geometries and slip-sense constrained by displacement of landscape features. AFG includes >2000 active and 1632 probably-active traces, while 35 traces result from historic surface-ruptures. Many faults (57%) exhibit strong depositional-control (DC) on sedimentation patterns, with active faults featuring approximately equal numbers of sharp (32%), moderate (29%) and rounded (29%) scarps. AFG is the first fault database in Greece generated using nationwide interpretation of geomorphology, with applications in paleoseismology, seismic-hazard-assessment, mineral-resources exploration and resilience-planning.

PMID:41271816 | DOI:10.1038/s41597-025-06283-z