When the earth trembles in Santorini, Greece remains with the breath suspended. In the past, the island has in fact been the scene of one of the most devastating eruptions ever documented on our planet, capable – around the middle of the second millennium before Christ – to wipe out the flourishing Minoan civilization. And also for this, the over 200 earthquakes recorded since last Friday triggered the preparations of the Hellenic government: schools and closed ports, the sending of special teams of the firefighters and dog units for the rescue under the rubble, e Flights to and from the island enhanced to ensure the rapid evacuation of the inhabitants.
The evacuation of Santorini
Precautional measures, ensures the Ministry of Civil Protection, also because seismic activity according to Greek experts would be tectonic, and not volcanic. Which remind us, however, how the island is not only a tourist paradise, but also home to one of the most active, and potentially dangerous submarine volcanoes of the Mediterranean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foqprpqiati
The seismic swarm of these days began on January 24, and intensified since last Friday, with about 380 shocks recorded in the entire period of time, and more than 200 only during the weekend. For now, the shocks have never exceeded magnitude 4.9, but their frequency suggests the risk of more substantial earthquakes, which could cause potentially dangerous tsunami for all the islands of the area. And that’s why the situation is carefully monitored, despite the fact that the government ensures that there would be no dangers at the moment. The most powerful earthquake that hit the island in recent times dates back to 1956, reached magnitude 7.2 caused the death of 53 people, and the collapse of a third of the island’s buildings.
🌋 βρυχάται η γη κάτω από την σαντορίνη enseυνε ξεκινήσει από τις πρωινές ώρες κατολισθ diseases στην καλντsis pic.twitter.com/d47alroqp1
– Forecast Weather Greece (@ForeCastgreece) Febration 3, 2025
The most feared danger, we said, is that of a kolumbo awakening, the submarine volcano located about 8 kilometers away from the island of Santorini. In the so -called Minoan eruption of the 1,600 AC the equivalent of 60 square kilometers of rock were expelled in a cloud that reached 35 kilometers of altitude.
The island was partially destroyed, obtaining the crescent shape it maintains in our day, and the tsunami following came to devastate the coasts of the island of Crete, over 100 kilometers away. According to the most recent estimates, it was the most devastating volcanic eruption ever documented (even in some Chinese documents were found), and would have contributed, at least in part, to the decline of the Minoan civilization, and to the following flourishing of the Mycenaean one.
When you could awaken the Kolumbo volcano
That something similar happens is almost impossible, because the mega eruptions of the Kolumbo volcano seems to repeat themselves with a cycle of about 20 thousand years. But even when the volcano wakes up without showing all its fury, the damage in the area is huge. In 1649 and 1650 a series of explosive eruptions caused the death of 70 people and animal westers on the island coasts. And according to some recent studies, the volcano magmatic chamber has continued to accumulate Magna at the rhythm of 4 million cubic meters every year in the last four centuries. And soon – an unspecified moment over the next 150 years – should reach two million cubic kilometers of volume, that is, the conditions that gave rise to the devastating eruptions of 1600.