Comment on "A comparison of 103-105 year uplift rates on the South Alkyonides fault, central Greece: Holocene climate stability and the formation of coastal notches" by J. F. Cooper, G. P. Roberts, and C. J. Underwood

An understanding of fault kinematics in areas of active tectonic deformation requires detailed knowledge of local and regional ground-surface displacement vectors. Where faulting displaces coastlines, dated raised marine notches can provide reference markers to measure the magnitude, rate and timing of fault displacement [Pirazzoli, 2005]. This is particularly important in areas of multi-generational faulting and where uplift may include both local and regional scale components, features which characterise the actively extending Gulf of Corinth rift (Figure 1). Cooper et al. [2007] interpret the distribution and elevation of raised Holocene and marine isotope stage (MIS) 5 (∼125 ka) fossil shorelines from the Perachora peninsula in the Gulf of Corinth as due to spatially variable uplift along the fault footwall of a western segment to the Pisia fault which ruptured in 1981 [Jackson et al., 1982]. This comment draws attention to previously published studies of raised shorelines in the area and presents new field observations that help test the structural uplift models of Cooper et al. [2007] and Morewood and Roberts [1999].