Geomorphological and Geophysical Investigations to Study the Landslide Affecting the Archaeological Site of Abakainon

Abstract

In recent years, a detailed archeoseismological investigation has been carried out in the necropolis of Abakainon in order to identify traces of an ancient earthquake. Although the identification of seismic damage was undoubtedly attributed to the 1st century AD earthquake, it was hypothesised that the level of damaging observed in the necropolis, as well as the counter slope tilting of the tomb basements may have also caused by a seismo-induced landslide, which produced locally an amplification of the seismic shaking. In order to identify the landslide, on which the Greek site lies, detailed geomorphological and geophysical surveys have been carried out. The research was directed to the acquisition of deep geological data for the reconstruction of slope process and the thickness of mobilised materials. The applied geophysical techniques included Seismic Refraction Tomography (SRT), Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), microtremor analysis (HVSR). The surveys were performed in order to delineate the sliding surface and to assess approximatively the thickness of mobilised materials. The results coming from geomorphological data combined with and geophysical surveys confirm the presence of different overlapped landslides in the studied area.