Scientists study environmental, climatic changes in South Aegean in last 20,000 years

The scientists gathered data at sea for 10 days as part of the Eurofleets programme, with the assistance of the oceanographic ship "R/V Aegaeo" of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research.

Talking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), the head of the mission Dr. Dimitris Sakellariou said the work had started in the Argolic Gulf due to strong winds of 7 Beaufort in the Myrtoan Sea, with systematic exploration of the area between the western coast of Argolis (Nafplio, Tolo, Iria, Kilada, Porto Heli, Spetses) and the eastern coast of Arkadia, (Astros, Tyros, Leonidio).

"This is an area of great interest because it contains important civilisational centres of antiquity and the prehistoric era (Mycenae, Tyrinth, the Frachthi Cave etc)," he said.

"The second half was focused on the Myrtoan Sea, in the area between Spetses and Hydra to the west and Sifnos, Milos to the east. During the mission there was a depth-sounding and morphological imprint of two regions with a total area of roughly 1,000 square kilometres, seismic cross-sections extending for 850 km were recorded and seven sediment cores were taken for analysis in a laboratory. The areas of the Argolic Gulf and Myrtoan Sea have not been studied until now. The data collected in the mission will give us a very good picture for their structure and development. From the analysis that will be carried out, we expect to have very interesting results regarding the palaeo-environment of the last few thousand years but also about the interaction of ancient and prehistoric civilisations with the environment," Sakellariou said.

He explained that these two areas of the sea were chosen because the land surrounding them - the eastern Peloponnese, Argolis, Attica and the western Cyclades islands - have been continuously inhabited since the Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods and were at the centre of the Cycladic, Mycenaean and Classical Greek civilisations.

"We collected sediment cores from both research areas in order to carry out the appropriate laboratory analyses that will give us new clues regarding the environmental changes that were caused by climate changes and geological, tectonic movements," Sakellariou said.

He said these will yield valuable information about the land ecosystems surrounding the Myrtoan Sea and Argolic Gulf in the last 20,000 years and the environmental conditions that existed at the time the early civilisations of the South Aegean first arose. The seismic cross-sections and ocean floor studies are expected to reveal the action of active faults, as well as earthquakes and tsunamis of the past.

In addition, the study will seek to examine how ancient and prehistoric civilisations interacted with the environment and changes to the climate, tying in with the main goals of the Eurofleets+ programme, which seeks to understand climate and environmental changes over time and their role in how human civilisations develop.

The mission was financed by Eurofleets+ (www.eurofleets.eu ) and implemented with Dr. Andreas Koutsodendris as scientific coordinator, a research team from the Heidelberg University Earth Sciences Institute in collaboration with a team of scientists from Austria, France and the HCMR (www.hcmr.gr ) research team headed by Dr. Sakellariou.