1b). We combine oceanographic, bathymetric and geological data to: (a) assist emergency response plans and (b) to predict the behaviour and fate of oil spilled in the marine environment. The paper starts with a summary of the

past behaviour of oil slicks in the Mediterranean Sea. After listing the new datasets and methodologies utilised, we review the geological setting of Crete prior to presenting the results of our shoreline susceptibility analysis and oil spill modelling. Later in this work, we discuss guidelines for oil-spill mitigation in coastal find more areas, and the importance of the South Aegean as a case-study for confined maritime basins. We compare and discuss the two accident scenarios modelled with hypothetical scenarios for Northern Crete (Heraklion). Part of this discussion on Northern Crete is based on previous risk analyses undertaken by Kassomenos

(2004). As discussed later, the proposed accident scenarios result in distinct geographic distributions and time lengths of spilled oil, parameters that influence any subsequent containment and mitigation work. We then propose that potential impacts differ for two distinct oil spills sources; oil spills during drilling operations, and oil spills caused by maritime accidents. The semi-arid climate FK228 in vitro of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, in which sun irradiation is high and surface sea temperatures Gemcitabine supplier reach 30 °C during the summer months (Coppini et al., 2011), can result in the consumption of up to 93% of spilt oil through emulsification and oxidation processes (Burns and Saliot, 1986). In general, rapid in-situ oxidation is expected in warm waters, imposing an important seasonal control

on oil movement and advection in the Eastern Mediterranean (see van Vleet and Reinhardt, 1983 for similar data from semi-tropical estuaries). As a result of rapid oxidation during the summer months, there is little evidence of large-scale accumulations of hydrocarbons in shoreline sediments across the Mediterranean Sea. However, locally there are important accumulations of hydrocarbons where burial rates are high or petroleum inputs are large (Burns and Saliot, 1986). In the Cretan Sea, for instance, in situ hydrographic observations demonstrated that important amounts of floating tar enter the Cretan Sea through the Khythira Strait, Western Crete ( Kornilios et al., 1998) ( Fig. 1a). The July 2006 Lebanon oil spill allowed the acquisition of important data on the holding capacity of sandy and rocky shorelines in the Eastern Mediterranean (Adler and Inbar, 2007 and Coppini et al., 2011). For the Lebanon oil spill, the MEDSLIK model predicted almost 80% of the original oil spilled at sea to have landed after six days along the Lebanese and South Syrian coasts (Coppini et al., 2011).