The island of Rhodes lies on part of the boundary between the Aegean Sea and African plates.

The tectonic setting is complex, with a Neogene history that includes periods of thrusting, extension and strike slip.

It sits in what is known as the Hellenic arc,[1] which is in an area that is highly vulnerable to seismic activity, and historically always has been, dating back to the 226 BC Rhodes earthquake.

[2] Currently the island of Rhodes is undergoing a counter-clockwise rotation (17° ±5° in the last 800,000 years) associated with the south Aegean sinistral strike-slip fault system.

[3] The island had also been tilted to the northwest during the Pleistocene, an uplift attributed to a reverse fault lying just to the east of Rhodes.