New geomorphological investigations carried out in 2012 along the coasts of

Corfu, Othonoi, Paxoi and Antipaxoi Islands have allowed the identification of recent fossil shorelines. Former sea-level positions were deduced from sea-level indicators, such as emerged and submerged notches. Notch geometries (height, inward depth and vertex depth) were measured. Due to the absence of tidal records at the closest tidegauge station during the period of fieldwork, an uncertainty of ±14 cm in depth measurements was taken into consideration.

A “modern” tidal notch, submerged ca.-20 cm, was observed in all studied islands, at various sites. This notch is regarded to have been submerged by the global sealevel rise that occurred during the 19th and 20th centuries at a rate exceeding the possibilities of intertidal bioerosion. Its presence provides evidence that no vertical tectonic movements occurred since its formation.

At Paxoi possible marks of erosion by waves, a few decimetres above sea level at two sites, may be interpreted as a still undetermined short-lived period of emergence. Below the “modern” notch, lower shorelines measured at –45±14 cm and-58±14 cm may correspond to the same fossil shoreline, apparently submerged by a coseismic vertical movement. At Antipaxoi, no evidence of emergence were found and Holocene vertical movements seem to have been only of subsidence; two submerged tidal notches have been distinguished at about -70 and -120 cm. On Corfu island impacts of ancient earthquakes have left some marks of emergence at about +20, +45, +110 and +140 cm, as well as marks of submergence at about -35 -50, -75, -100 and -180 cm. The emergence of +140 cm, which had been previously dated at or after 790-400 cal. B.C., was detected through erosion notches at various sites of the western part of Corfu and seems to continue even more west, at Othonoi Island.