Greece 2000-2003

I carried out my PhD research at the department of Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. The research topic was the reconstruction of the tectonic history of the Aegean region (Greece) since the Oligocene. I carried out fieldwork in the sedimentary basins and underlying basement of the external Hellenides (from Albania, via the Peloponnesos and Crete to Rhodos). The results have been or are being published and the papers can be downloaded on the Publications page. This page shows a selection of pictures taken during the 11 months of fieldwork carried out for this project.

On the boat from Trieste (Italy) to Igoumenitsa (Epirus, western Greece)...back when I still smoked (for the non-Dutch among you: cigarettes. nothing more).

Lunch in a local Kafenion on the border between Greece and Albania, summer 2002. Worst omelet I ever had.

My field mate Mark-Jan Sier in a cool pose drilling Pliocene clays on Corfu (Monastery-section, 2001).

Me, taking the drilled cores out of the outcrop.

Mark-Jan, preparing a site on the western coast of Corfu, (Arillas Beach section, 2001)

Me, drilling the basal (!) part of the Monastery section, Corfu 2001.

Fieldwork in the Pindos mountains, 2001. Mark-Jan crossing the Acheloos river, in front of a photogenic fold...

The Pindos mountains expose some of the best structural geology I know. This picture shows a large pop-up at high angles to the Pindos thrustfront, western Greece.

Kink-folds in the Pindos mountains in more detail (at least 3 compressional deformation phases can be discerned).

...and in some further detail. ("stoelplooi" in Dutch...)

Thrust stack in the Pindos mountains

View on Lake Kremaston, in front (to the west) of the Pindos thrust in western Greece

Beautiful monocline in southern Albania. The border with Greece runs between the monocline and the village.

Impossible pose for drilling....

Mark-Jan, together with our Greek colleages George Ananiadis (left) and John Vakalas (right) from the University of Patras (Greece), drilling the Botsara-west section, 2002.

Me, drilling in the Limni-Pournarion locallity in Epirus, western Greece, 2001. Local kid wondering what the hell we are doing. In the end, normally 5 kids stand watching how we cover ourselves in mud.

Another field mate, Douwe van der Meer, drilling in northwestern Greece in 2002

One of my field mate's more original jokes...

We were drilling approximately 100 m above this place...

One of the best things of fieldwork is...racing around in cars! And see what they can...

...and cannot do. Kefallonia in March 2003.

summer 2001, seeking our limits...

...and finding them!

Sampling on Milos, 2000. From left to right: Stefan Garstman, Prof. Constantine Doukas (University of Athens) and Prof. Johan Meulenkamp, my supervisor.

Constantine Doukas and Johan Meulenkamp during the Crete 2003 trip. Although it was May, there was still a little snow on Mount Ida.

...mount Ida has a beautiful valley near its top, which must be a doline (karst) as there is no outlet out of the valley.

One of the pittoresque villages of Kefallonia

and a view on the embayment of Vathi, on Ithaki (the home island of Odysseus)

Inhabitants of Kefallonia, disagreeing with the war in Iraq, march 2003.