#voidomatis river

zagori

zagori

Κayak at Voidomatis river. Epirus,Greece.

VIKOS GORGE, GREECE: The Steepest-Deepest Canyon in the World

The Vikos Gorge hidden within the Pindos Mountains of Northern Greece is the deepest canyon in the world, and it has the Guinness World Record certificate to prove that it holds the title.

Ah, but what about the Grand Canyon? Apparently among those who “decide” such things, the width-to-depth ratios of canyon topography are used to determine measurable parameters by which canyons can be compared. And Vikos is incomparable!

You can look into it yourself on Google Earth: the gorge is about 20 km long, as narrow as 400m, and I count more than 1800m of topographic relief between the near-vertical cliffs and base of the gorge at the north of the canyon. The topographic gradient of the walls of the canyon surpass 100% at many locations, several places approach an average rise of 200 meters with each 100 horizontal meters. In geology, whenever a slope is encountered steeper than ~30%, some drastic tectonic origin is always suspected. In the case of Vikos, this is only part of the story: within the gorge flows the Voidomatis River, the most pristine river in Europe. It is the culprit that carved the gorge, but it wouldn't have bothered to do so without being forced by active tectonics!

The rocks that host the Vikos Gorge are oceanic sediments that once accumulated off the coast of Africa from the Jurassic onwards through the early Tertiary: largely they consist of limestones and calcareous-rich marls. In the climate world of today’s Greece, carbonate rocks of this nature are resistant to erosion, generally forming high peaks and ridges. However, when a river flows across limestone, even over relatively short geologic periods of times (say, on the scale of thousands to ten thousands of years) its waters cut through carbonates like a liquid knife.

The creation of the gorge was initiated by tilting of the limestone-rich block by a fault to the north (which is still active today and still uplifting the block): the Voidomatis River was trapped within its course, and has been down-cutting as fast as it can to keep up ever since. The resulting erosion has created the Vikos Gorge.

The Vikos Gorge was established as a UNESCO Geopark in 2011. It is one of the Geowonders of the Northern Pindos National Park of Greece.

No, it’s not the Grand Canyon. It’s just the Steepest-Deepest canyon in the world!

Annie R

My photo.