GEORGIA TECH (US) — After more than 60 years of inactivity, the magma chamber of a Greek volcano is filling up again.A picturesque island in the Aegean Sea, Santorini is a tourist magnet, famous for its breathtaking, cliff side views and sunsets. Until now, the volcanic island has been relatively calm since its last eruption in 1950.
The Santorini caldera is awake again and rapidly deforming at levels never seen before.
“After decades of little activity, a series of earthquakes and deformation began within the Santorini caldera in January of 2011,” says Andrew Newman, a geophysicist at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Newman, who has studied Santorini since setting up more than 20 GPS stations on the island in 2006, reports his findings in Geophysical Research Letters.
“Since then, our instruments on the northern part of the island have moved laterally between five and nine centimeters. The volcano’s magma chamber is filling, and we are keeping a close eye on its activity.” Read More
