South coast of Amorgos

The southern coast of Amorgos has a number of striking characteristics that you can see and feel:

Length and lack of coves

The southern coast of Amorgos is 41.1 km long. And that is shorter than you might expect. The northern coast of Amorgos is much longer compared to the southern coast of Amorgos: 66.1 km versus 41.1 km, or as much as 61% longer. And this is no coincidence. You could say that the northern coast is a typical Aegean coast with many coves and bays. The major deviation from what is generally to be expected is the southern coast, which is much straighter. This is all related to the large fault line and graben located south of Amorgos. This graben plunges here to 1000m below sea level. Along this fault line, the largest earthquake of the last 100 years in Greece was also recorded. It is along this major fault line that Amorgos was asymmetrically uplifted. You can also detect this asymmetrical uplift in the course of the watershed ridge of Amorgos, which is not neatly centered in the island (as one might expect with symmetrical uplift) but lies much more to the south.

Steep cliff coast

Due to this intense and asymmetrical uplift, you also get steep cliffs diving from 800m high in the northeast and 500m in the southwest at an angle of more than 45° into the southern sea of Amorgos, reaching a depth of 1000m.

Cold and turbulent waters

This deep graben of over 1000m causes cold waters south of the island. Here, there are no shallow coasts to warm the water. And you will also feel this when swimming in popular swimming spots like Mouros and Agia Anna.

Dromos