Description
The Santorini volcanic group is composed of three islands (Thera, Therasia, and Aspronisi), arranged around a flooded caldera, within which are the Palea and Nea Kameni Islands. These postdate caldera collapse (3.6ka) and are the subaerial expressions of an intracaldera, largely submarine lava shield (Druitt, 2014). The evolution of the Kameni islands (Antoniou et al., 2019) has been determined by 9 subaerial eruptions, dated to 197 BCE, AD46-47, AD726, 1570-1573, 1707-1711, 1866-70, 1925-28, 1939-41, and 1950 (Pyle and Elliot, 2006); these led to the outpouring of dacitic flows and to the formation of domes, channels and levees, blocky lavas. Ash plumes during Vulcanian phases, and ballistic ejecta, were also reported during some of the historical eruptions. The Kameni islands reach a total relief of almost 470 m in the central part of the caldera and cover an area of ~ 21 km2. Bathymetric imagery data have revealed unknown submarine flows (pillow lavas) defining the actual morphology and final volume of products from Kameni Volcano to 4.85±0.7 km3 (Nomikou et al., 2014). In the model, the 1570-1573 AD volcanic crater is shown, which is located in the northeastern part of Nea Kameni. During a phase of surtseyan activity, which was accompanied by ash-fall and block fall-out, a small lava dome, Mikri Kameni, was extruded (Watts et al., 2015). The crater is slightly elongated in a N5°E direction (102.52 x 95.33 m), has a depth of 31.43m and is composed of dacitic lava with abrupt slopes, no sign of activity is detected (no fumaroles).

Credits: UAV-based survey and 3D model by Fabio L. Bonali; the volcanic history of Kamenes volcano has been provided by Paraskevi Nomikou and Varvara Antoniou.

References

  • Antoniou V., Nomikou P., Bardouli P., Sorotou P., Bonali F. L., Ragia L. And Metaxas A. (2019). The Story Map for Metaxa Mine (Santorini, Greece): A Unique Site Where History and Volcanology Meet Each Other. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management – Volume 1: GISTAM, 212-219.
  • Druitt, T. H. (2014). New insights into the initiation and venting of the Bronze-Age eruption of Santorini (Greece), from component analysis, Bull. Volcanol., 76, 794.
  • Nomikou, P., Parks M.Μ., Papanikolaou D., Pyle D.Μ., Mather T.Α., Carey S., Watts A.Β., Paulatto M., Kalnins M., Livanos I., Bejelou K., Simou E., Perros I. (2014). The emergence and growth of a submarine volcano: The Kameni islands, Santorini (Greece). GeoResJ, 1-2, pp.8.Watts et al., 2015
  • Pyle, D.M., Elliott, J.R., 2006. Quantitative morphology, recent evolution, and future activity of the Kameni Islands volcano, Santorini, Greece. Geosphere, 2(5), 253-268.
  • Watts, A.B., Nomikou P., Moore J.D.P., Parks M.M., Alexandri M., 2015. Historical bathymetric charts and the evolution of Santorini submarine volcano, Greece. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 16 (3), pp.847.