Qualla: Hellenic Trench https://qualla.com/hellenic-trench en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/w/p/hellenic-trench-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Hellenic Trench https://qualla.com/hellenic-trench Hellenic Trench: Introduction https://qualla.com/hellenic-trench/ Photo credit Public domain. Beneath the blue surface of the Ionian Sea, about 180 kilometers southwest of the Peloponnese, the Mediterranean floor drops away into darkness. The Calypso Deep, nested within the Matapan-Vavilov Deep, is the deepest point in the entire Mediterranean Sea. The Hellenic Trench is the system that contains it: a 1,200-kilometer arc of oceanic trough that curves from the Gulf of Corinth south past Crete and east toward Rhodes, tracing the collision zone where the African plate has been sliding under the Eurasian plate for some 30 million years. From the air, the sea gives no hint of what lies below. From the seafloor, it is one of the most geologically active places on Earth.

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Image: Public domain

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/w/p/hellenic-trench-wp/sqwp-hellenic-trench-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hellenic Trench: Where Two Plates Meet https://qualla.com/hellenic-trench/ Photo credit Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Hellenic Trench marks the outer edge of one of the most complex tectonic systems in the world. Africa is moving north, pressing against Eurasia. Where the two plates meet, the African slab dives under the Aegean Plate — a process called subduction — pushing up the arc of high...

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Image: Mikenorton | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/w/p/hellenic-trench-wp/sqwp-hellenic-trench-where-two-plates-meet.mp3 0:06 2 full Hellenic Trench: The Calypso Deep https://qualla.com/hellenic-trench/ Photo credit Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0. The deepest basin in the western leg of the trench is the Matapan Deep, also called the Matapan-Vavilov Deep, located south of the Peloponnese's Mani peninsula — the middle of the three 'fingers' that reach down from the Greek mainland. Within it lies the Calypso Deep, the lowest...

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Image: Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/w/p/hellenic-trench-wp/sqwp-hellenic-trench-the-calypso-deep.mp3 0:06 3 full Hellenic Trench: A Curved Scar, 1,200 Kilometers Long https://qualla.com/hellenic-trench/ Photo credit Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The geometry of the Hellenic Trench is not a simple line. It forms an arc roughly 1,200 kilometers in length along its outer edge — or about 1,000 kilometers if measured along the subduction line itself. On a map it resembles the track of something enormous that swept through the...

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Image: Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/w/p/hellenic-trench-wp/sqwp-hellenic-trench-a-curved-scar-1-200-kilometers-long.mp3 0:06 4 full Hellenic Trench: Thirty Million Years of Geology https://qualla.com/hellenic-trench/ Photo credit Ilirik, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Hellenic Trench did not appear suddenly. Its origin traces back to the Oligocene, about 30 million years ago, when successive waves of African plate subduction under Eurasia began building the mountain ranges of Greece. Each wave of subduction created a forearc — a raised rim...

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Image: Ilirik | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/w/p/hellenic-trench-wp/sqwp-hellenic-trench-thirty-million-years-of-geology.mp3 0:06 5 full