The island of Santorini in Greece is well known to locals and tourists for its scenic
views and beautiful architecture.
However, all you need to do is zoom out to see that this island has a much darker secret.
You see, all of these islands used to be connected.
Then, in 1610 BC, an incredibly large eruption destroyed a thriving bronze age settlement,
and caused the volcano to collapse into the ocean, thus forming a caldera.
This video will discuss this active volcano, and mention what its future hazards are.
The Santorini volcano can be found in the Aegean Sea off the coast of mainland Greece.
Specifically, it is 170 kilometers southwest of Turkey, and 112 kilometers north of Crete.
When I refer to the Santorini volcano, I am referring to its current summit, and group
of islands within the caldera.
The Santorini volcano began forming 530,000 years ago, when a series of submarine volcanoes
began to erupt.
Eventually, a large volcano reached the surface, and started to build a large island.
Over the next 200,000 years, these eruptions built a broad shield volcano.
Eventually, a second shield volcano erupted nearby, and soon partially overlapped with
the earlier volcano.
Then, 180,000 years ago, a massive explosive eruption began.
This eruption ejected a plume of ash high into the atmosphere, and continued to escalate.
Eventually, the volume of magma erupted was so large that both of these shield volcanoes
collapsed into the ocean, forming the first of several calderas at Santorini.
The remnants of this eruption's caldera rim are no longer visible, as they were destroyed
by subsequent eruptions.
Then, 80,000 years ago, another shield volcano known as Skaros began to erupt.
Over the next ten thousand years, this volcano grew to 6 kilometers wide.
Once again, this volcano suffered a catastrophically large eruption 70,000 years ago, and collapsed
into the ocean.
A similar process occurred over the next 50,000 years, culminating in a third massive caldera
collapse 21,000 years ago.
After this eruption, another large shield volcano grew out of the caldera.
By 4,000 years ago, the Santorini volcano likely looked like this image on screen.
At the time, a thriving bronze age civilization known as the Minoans began to settle on the
island.
By 1700 BC, thousands of citizens lived on the island.
However, these citizens were not aware of the extreme dangers from this mountain.
Then, in 1610 BC, a fourth massive eruption began.
Pyroclastic flows raced outwards in every direction, and a plume of ash reached high
into the atmosphere.
Thousands of residents who lived on this island died from the initial phase of the eruption.
As the eruption continued, more than 100 cubic kilometers of ash, tephra, and lava was ejected
from the mountain.
This caused the magma chamber to largely drain, which in turn caused the island to collapse
into the ocean.
The chain of islands which form a ring used to be connected, but their connections were
destroyed during this massive eruption.
It represented the largest eruption in Europe of the last 30,000 years, and likely inspired
the myth of Atlantis.
For the next 1,000 years, no additional eruptions occurred.
Then, in 197 BC, an eruption was witnessed breaking out of the ocean for four days.
This eruption formed an island which was about 750 m wide, although this has since been overlaid
by more recent lava flows.
The next eruption occurred 2700 meters to the southwest in 46 AD.
Viscous dacite and andesite lavas erupted onto the surface, and formed another new island.
This island was expanded once again in 726 AD.
In 1570 AD, volcanic activity resumed close to the site of the 197 BC eruption.
Over the next three years, the eruption formed a lava dome.
Over the next several hundred years, 6 additional explosive and effusive eruptions occurred,
which greatly expanded this island.
The last of these eruptions was witnessed in 1950, which created another small lava
dome.
Since then, no additional eruptions have occurred, although seismic unrest has been detected.
Eruptions at this caldera have happened an average of about once every 65 years.
As of 2021, I do not think another caldera collapse will occur anytime soon.
Any future eruptions are likely to take place on the two recently formed islands in the
center of the caldera.
These future eruptions will be explosive in nature and are likely to eventually merge
the two islands.
When the next eruption occurs, bombs of lava and ash could reach the entirety of Santorini.
I hope that you enjoyed this video.
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