Produced by: Manoj Kumar
A swarm of earthquakes has been intensifying near Santorini, prompting Greek authorities to close schools and deploy emergency crews. Though a volcanic eruption isn’t expected, scientists warn that stronger quakes could be on the way.
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People on Santorini felt tremors last week as underwater earthquakes erupted beneath the Aegean Sea. These quakes, mostly below magnitude 3.5, escalated until Monday, when a magnitude 5 quake struck 21 miles northeast of Santorini.
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David Pyle, a professor of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford, explained that the quakes are linked to fault lines shifting beneath the Aegean. “It’s all underwater, and so it’s really hard to anticipate what’s going to happen next,” he told Live Science.
The Aegean Sea rests on a small crustal plate being stretched as the African plate slides beneath the Eurasian plate. This stretching creates stress that moves faults, generating earthquakes that may continue in unpredictable bursts.
Santorini experienced a similar earthquake swarm between 2011 and 2012, triggered by magma movement beneath the island. This time, the swarm is more intense and centered northeast of Santorini, outside its famous volcanic caldera.
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Most quakes are occurring between Santorini and Kolumbo, an underwater volcano that last erupted in 1650. While tectonic activity is driving the current swarm, scientists aren’t ruling out deeper connections to volcanic systems.
Kolumbo’s 1650 eruption triggered a massive tsunami, devastating nearby islands. Even earlier, Santorini was reshaped by the Minoan eruption in 1600 B.C., one of the largest volcanic events in human history, according to Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
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Pyle noted that the affected area is larger than in 2011, and the rate of detected quakes is higher. While volcanic activity isn’t imminent, researchers lack a full understanding of the magma systems beneath Kolumbo and Santorini.
With no clear signs of eruption, scientists continue to monitor the region. Whether the swarm signals a larger tectonic shift or a deeper volcanic connection remains an open question—one that could shape the future of Santorini’s geological landscape.
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