In the eastern part of the peninsula and in the Aegean, different formations occur. The
folded range of mountains in the Aegean basin is mostly crystalline and metamorphic rocks.
This is still evident in Thrace, Macedonia, the Cycledes, and the southern Peloponnese. In fact
the peaks of these mountains form islands rising from the sea.
The territory of Greece is fragmented by numerous faults and fractures in the earth's
crust. Much more than the rest of the Mediterranean area. These faults have produced much of
the topography of Greece as we know it today: hills of various heights, little basins, plain areas,
deep bays, promontories and peninsulas, scattered islands, rugged cliffs, coastlines. These
formations can be seen especially on the islands in the Ionian Sea and all over Greece itself.
There has been violent volcanic activity along with thermal springs and earth tremors but this has
decreased in most recent times.
Major Earthquakes in Greece
C. 1400 B.C. Devastation of Minoan civilization
464 B.C. Devastation in Eurotas valley:
Destruction of Sparta (20,000 killed)
6th Century A.D. Destruction of Olympia
1856 Crete
1886 Devastation of Three towns and 123 villages in Messenia
1926 Rhodes
1928 Destruction of Corinth
1944 West coast of Mani devastated
1953 Ionian Islands
1975 Severe tremors in Aetolia and Acarnania
1978 Northern Greece, much damage in Salonica