THE FORMATION OF THE PELOPONNESE THE TAYGETOS MOUNTAINS the Tethys Ocean would become Greece ; trapped under the ancient super-continents of Pangaea and Laurasia. The Triassic and Cretaceous periods; calciferous marine organisms gradually formed thick sedimentary deposits of dolomite and limestone. 蔄s these two super-continents rotated towards each other; Tethys Ocean was subjected to slow and irresistible pressure. The stresses caused the deforming the earth誷 crust; then steady uplifting and buckling of the sedimentary rocks. Intense heat and pressure metamorphosed the parent limestone and sandstone; into marble and quartzite; respectively.The uplifting stretches from the Alps through to the mountains of Iran; Greece occupies the Hellenic plate; which is slowly stretching; north-east / south-west direction. This spreading over the descending African plate to the south-east; and the Turkish plate to the east. The area; giving rise to the jagged mountains and steep sided valleys. Constant kneading; and squeezing; of the bedrock with high levels of tectonic and volcanic activity such as ancient Sparta was levelled; in 464; and the aftermath of this destruction led to the first Peloponnesian war against Athens. More recently; Kalamata suffered serious damage in 1986;