After 60 years of silence, the volcano that erupted to form the Greek islands of Santorini (pictured) thousands of years ago seems to have reawakened.
Andrew Newman at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and his colleagues analysed data from 24 Global Positioning System stations around the volcano from 2006 to 2012. They found that, since the beginning of 2011, the volcano's main caldera, a crater-like depression, has been expanding by up to 18 centimetres in diameter per year — probably as a result of the expansion of its source of magma, some four kilometres below the surface. The ground deformation coincided with observations of renewed seismic activity in the area.
The earthquake activity and ground deformation could be a prelude to a small eruption, the researchers say, but a mega-eruption is unlikely. However, other volcanoes of the same type that have shown similar signs of unrest have returned to normal activity without erupting at all.
Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011GC003976 (2012)
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The reawakening of Santorini. Nature 483, 513 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/483513d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/483513d
