Tectonic structure and fabric development of the Plattenkalk unit around the Samaria gorge, Western Crete, GreeceTectonic structure and fabric development of the Plattenkalk unit around the Samaria gorge, Western Crete, Greece Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2015-10-312003enThe Plattenkalk area around the Samaria gorge,western Crete, has been investigated by structural analysis and studies of microfabrics. The study area is dominated by a large-scale anticline striking to the NNE. All fracture systems observed correspond to that structure.In the northwestern limb of the anticline tectonic structures at mesoand micro-scales testify to movements top-to-theESE, while in the southeastern limb an opposite shear sense is documented. The morphologies and geometries of these structures clearly indicate flexural-slip folding. Within the Plattenkalk sequence bedding-parallel low-strain domains with no, or only weak, indications of shortening alternate with high-strain domains showing intense compressional deformation. Ductile deformation is restricted to discrete shear zones in the northwestern limb only, but from N to S meso- and micro-scale structures exhibit a conspicuous transition from ductile to brittle deformation. With respect to the calcite twin types observed, furthermore to the presence of cataclastic quartz fabrics and the absence of matrix coarsening in the majority of meta-cherts,metamorphism temperatures did nowhere exceed 300 °C and have even decreased from N to S.All features of tectonic deformation and metamorphism have developed within the same tectonic phase,i.e.during the late Early Miocene.The tectonic structures and fabrics probably originated autochthonously, within the foreland of an orogenic belt. Our observations fit in well with illite crystallinity measurements in all Plattenkalk areas of Crete (SOUJON & JACOBSHAGEN 2001) showing that on the whole island the temperatures of metamorphism have decreased from N to S. For the Plattenkalk of the southern Peloponnesus, an analogous trend had already been found by MANUTSOGLU (1990). All these features seem to reflect the mid-Tertiary subduction of the Plattenkalk platform beneath the Hellenic Arc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft f�r Geowissenschaften ZDGG115485-100 Manoutsoglou Emmanouil Μανουτσογλου Εμμανουηλ Soujon, André Jacobshagen, Volker Plattenkalk