I read Manny Konstandinidis' question about Nisyros.
I would like any information on this island as well as Santorini.
Thank you.
Athanasios Kotsenos
Dear Athanasios,
Manny was kind enough to send us a few photos of Nisyros and I wrote a
description of the volcano. Keep an eye on Images of Volcanoes. It
should be posted soon.
Santorini is also in the Aegean region and is a result of subduction of
the African plate beneath the Aegean micro-plate. Santorini is famous
for the large eruption in 1620 BC that probably brought an end to the
Minoan civilization. Before the eruption, the island was a single,
steep-sided stratovolcano between 1500-2500 feet (500-800 m) in height.
An older caldera on the northeast part of the island was filled with
blocky lava.
The vent for the 1620 BC eruption was located about a half mile (1 km)
west of the present-day town of Thera. The types of volcanic deposits
include base surges and surtseyan-type deposits indicating that sea water
was entering the magma chamber. Ash and gas were ejected from the
volcano at an estimated velocity of 1800 feet/s (555 m/s) and reached
heights of 12 miles (20 km) above the volcano. So much magma was erupted
that the roof above the chamber collapsed, forming a caldera. The
eruption produced a thick layer of white pumice that caps the islands
like icing on a cake.
After the Minoan eruption, Santorini erupted in 197 BC, AD 19, 46, 726,
1570, 1707-1711, 1866-70, 1925-6, 1928, 1939-41 and 1950. These
eruptions made the islands of Palea Kammeni and Nea Kammeni in the middle
of the caldera. The eruptions usually have weak explosions and produce
blocky lava flows.
Peter Francis has a nice
discussion of archeological
aspects of the eruption in his book Volcanoes A Planetary Perspective.
Steve Mattox, University of North Dakota
Sources of Information:
Bond, A. and Sparks, R.S.J., 1976, The Minoan eruption of Santorini,
Greece: Journal of the Geological Society, v. 132, p. 1-16.
Francis, P., 1994, Volcanoes a planetary perspective: Oxford University
Press, New York, 443 p.
Georgalas, G.C., 1962, Catalogue of the active volcanoes of the world
including solfatara fields; Part XII Greece: International Association of
Volcanology, Rome, Italy, 40 p.
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