SEISMOTECTONIC EVIDENCE OF AN ACTIVE NORMAL-FAULT BENEATH THESSALONIKI (GREECE)

During 3 weeks in 1985, we operated a dense network of portable seismological stations around the city of Thessaloniki, in Northern Greece, where a destructive earthquake had occurred in 1978. We recorded 282 microearthquakes, with magnitudes ranging between -0.2 to 3.0, and we computed 22 Fault Plane Solutions. The experiment was designed to map the stress pattern west of the 1978 shock, and to study the Asvestohorio fault. Around this fault, located near Thessaloniki, Mercier et al. (1983) observed a few cracks during the 1978 shock. The seismicity shows the same scattered pattern seen through the whole Chalkidiki region. We observe also a dense cluster around Asvestohorio, but this cluster is probably related to explosions in nearby mines. After filtering the data from possible explosions we found evidence of seismic activity. The earthquakes are dipping toward the NE, suggesting that the Asvestohorion fault is active. The Fault Plane Solutions do not help in defining the geometry of the fault but the P and T-axes are consistent with the regional stress pattern.