The nappe pile of eastern Crete

In eastern Crete four allochthonous units with different styles of deformation are piled up above the autochthonous Cherty Limestone (“Plattenkalk”). The emplacement of the nappes is discussed. Diapiric uplift of the Cycladic area was accompanied by large-scale gravity sliding in the direction towards the Aegean arc. There is no evidence from geophysical data for the existence of a subduction zone. Therefore, the transport of the eastern Cretan nappes may be better explained by gravity tectonics than by the model of plate tectonics.