Context

• Greece’s Santorini volcano erupts more often when sea level drops- New Findings.
• Lower sea levels over the last 360,000 years are linked with more eruptions.

About

• Santorini is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast from the Greek mainland.
• It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago, which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera.
• It is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc.
• It forms the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands.
• The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred about 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization and led to its collapse.

Findings

• When the sea level dropped at least 40 meters below the present-day level, the crust above the magma chamber splintered.
• That gives an opportunity for the magma that’s stored under the volcano to move up through these fractures and make its way to the surface.

Download PDF