THE VOLCANO


It is not only the fascination of its craggy precipices, the legend of the lost island of Atlantis, the contrast between the deep blue of the sea, the white of the pumice stone or the black intensity of the lava that make Santorini unique.

Nor is it just the lovely little bars from which classical music floats out discreetly to greet the lights around the caldera as the evening draws in to a close.

Santorini has one of the most violent volcanoes on the face of the earth; a huge, open-air, geological and volcanological museum, unique in the world.

The geological situation in the Aegean region is determined by the sinking of the African lithospheric plate under the Eurasian plate. The African plate is sinking to the South of Crete, under the Aegean, as it is moving to the Northwest, at a speed estimated at 4 to 5 cm each year. This process has been going on in the last 15 million years at a depth ranging from 120 to 140 km. At such depth, the presence of the submerged lithospere in the earth's crust creates appropriate conditions for magma generation.

The last huge eruption of the volcano dates back 3,600 years, in the late bronze age. This was a period when the island was vibrant with life and movement, enjoying a flourishing civilisation similar to that of Minoan Crete. This tremendous eruption, known as the "Minoan eruption", ejected into the air 30 cubic kilometers of magma in the form of pumice and volcanic ash,to a height of up to 36 kilometers above the island, even seen in Norway. Pumice deposits, dozens of meters thick, buried one of the most prosperous pre-historic settlements of that period, feeding the myth of lost Atlantis
The removal of such a large volume of magma caused the volcano to collapse, producing the Caldera. This catastrophe, gave rise to the legend of the Lost Atlantis. Where the island of Strongyli, (which means "round island", as we called the island before this eruption), once flourished in the brilliance of its civilisation; there now gaped a yawning crucible which the sea rushed to fill. Thira, Thirassia and Aspronissi: these are all that remain of Strongyli.
The eruption probably caused the end of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, because of the immense seawaves.
Two million years have passed since the molten rock, the magma, first broke out of the depths in which it was formed, to appear on the surface of the earth here in this spot. It has taken thousands of eruptions since then to build up again the volcano of Santorini. In the last 400,000 years there have been more than 100 eruptions, each of which added a new layer of earth and rock, slowly making the volcano bigger

Since 1969, intense archeological excavations have brought to light an important Cycladic town , Akrotiri, which had been buried beneath the Minoan ash-layer for almost 4000 years. Although it appears that people had time to evacuate their island in time before the eruption, carrying most of their goods with them, the findings from Akrotiri are impressive: especially, they include well-preserved and magnificent wall paintings, ceramics and other objects.

The eruption of 1926

The mild activity of the volcano after this major eruption continues into the present (the most recent eruption occurred in 1950) building up two small vulcano islands in the center of the caldera, Palea and Nea Kameni. They are the youngest volcanic lands now in the Eastern Mediterranean. Palea Kameni (Old Burnt Island) is less than 2000 years old, while Nea Kameni (Young Burnt Island) began to form only 425 years ago and its youngest lavalayers are less than 55 years old. These islands represent the volcano's most recent activity. Eleven eruptions since 197 B.C. have formed the two islands. The most recent eruption at Santorini was in 1950 on Nea Kameni, the northern island. The eruption was phreatic and lasted less than a month. It constructed a dome and produced lava flows.
Interesting link : the "Institute for the Study and Monitoring of the Santorini Volcano

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