Santorini volcano eruption. Santorini volcano eruption and flood. Ruins of a Minoan city on Cape Akrotiri

Volcano Santorini is a legendary volcano on the island of Santorini (Thira) in the Aegean Sea. The eruption of the Santorini volcano that occurred three and a half thousand years ago is considered the largest volcanic event on Earth in history.

As a result of a monstrous eruption, the crater of the volcano collapsed, and a huge caldera was formed, which was instantly filled with the waters of the Aegean Sea. The explosion of the Santorini volcano led to the death of the Aegean civilization, settlements on the islands of Crete and the Mediterranean coast. According to some scientists, the state that died as a result of the explosion is the legendary Atlantis.

The island of Santorini is a group of several islands that are part of the Cyclades archipelago. These include the island of Thira, Palea Kameni, Thirasia, Nea Kameni and Aspro. They are built in the form of a ring, inside of which there is a deep (up to 400 meters) volcanic caldera. The inner coast of the largest island, Thira, consists of steep slopes, the height of which reaches three hundred meters. While the outer edge is sloping, comfortable beaches with black lava sand, washed by the waves of the Aegean Sea.

Tourists love Santorini for its interesting history and the wonderful holidays possible in a picturesque, romantic town on the island. Many hotels provide visitors with cozy rooms and houses for accommodation. The excellent service and infrastructure of modern Thira provide a stark contrast to its ancient predecessor. The archaeological reserve, where excavations are still ongoing, is one of the most popular places in Santorini.

In addition, everyone can take a yacht excursion to the islets of Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni, located in the center of the caldera. These islands are nothing more than the result of the activity of the legendary Santorini volcano. Before your eyes are alien landscapes, under your feet is quite hot earth, and in places trickles of hydrogen sulfide break through its thickness. The volcano is sleeping, but not extinct. Its last activity was observed in 1950. And at any moment Santorini can wake up again.

Santorini Volcano - PHOTO

Hello friends! Today is our review of the excursion to the Santorini volcano, to the terrible black islands in the caldera. Frankly, we weren’t planning on going there, but the price of 26 euros won us over - a cheap opportunity to get to the Nea Kameni volcano, the same one that everyone takes pictures of from the main island.

Excursions to the Santorini volcano: what options and prices

We did not plan to buy excursions to Santorini. However, in one of the tourist offices where we bought ferry tickets, we saw an advertising booklet with interesting excursions to the Santorini volcano:

• option 1: excursion to the volcano only for 18 euros per person;
• option 2: excursion to the volcano and hot springs for 20 euros, from 11 or 14 hours for 3 hours;
• option 3: excursion to the volcano, hot springs and Thirassia island for 26 euros, from 10:45 to 16:15;
• option 4: excursion to the volcano and hot springs, watching the sunset on the ship with a glass of local wine - 35 euros, from 15:30 until dark.

We liked these options both in terms of price and content. The excursions start from the Old Port of Thira; you have to get to the port on your own.

You can book the same or similar excursion at any travel agency on the island.

There are excursions to the Santorini volcano that start from the New Port of Atina and include transfers from and back to the collection points. We did not specify where the collection points are, but we think there should be quite a few of them. So, excursions to the Santorini volcano with transfer:

• option 5: excursion to the volcano, hot springs and Thirassia island for 35 euros, from 10:30 to 17:30;
• option 6: the same thing, only at the end of the excursion they go not to the New Port, but to the port of Oia, watching the sunset in Oia and driving around the collection points - 38 euros; from 10:30, ending after sunset.

We chose between 2, 3 and 4 options and settled on the third for 26 euros per person. And this is what it looked like :)

Let's start, everyone! That is, to the port

Places that we must visit during the excursion to the Santorini volcano, on the map:

So, first you need to get to the Old Port of Fira. There are three ways to do this: on foot up several hundred steps, by cable car, or by donkey. We chose the first option and were right: there are beautiful views along the way. And, of course, there are many donkeys and mules ready to carry tourists in any direction. “Only five euros to the Old Port!” - the drovers offer on every corner. But why do we need them, we are going down!

The donkeys on the steps huddle against one wall, the tourists against the other :)

The funicular to the Old Port of Santorini is always in demand. But we at Uehali.com think it's boring!

And here is the Nea Kameni volcano, to which we are now sailing!

After almost half an hour of descent - going down the steps is not as easy as one might think - we are in the Old Port. There are a lot of people, they all came to go on an excursion to the volcano.

The most modest port we have ever seen.

At the office we were told where we would need to go to show the voucher (excursions to Santorini are fully paid in advance). The guide groups tourists and from half past ten begins to seat them on arriving ships. Well, it's starting, hurray!

I love excursions like this, where people from all over the world gather. And everyone speaks/understands English :)

We are on Nea Kameni. This is tough

The island of Nea Kameni is the main attraction of the excursion to the Santorini volcano. Since we use the word “volcano,” some clarification is in order. Many millennia ago, there was a single island in this place with a tall active volcano. And one day there was an eruption of unprecedented force. Lava soared up tens of kilometers, in fact, the entire volcano exploded from the inside. The mountain completely collapsed, and not only on the surface of the earth, but “from the roots” - in its place a pit several hundred meters deep was formed, and it was flooded by the sea. This is how the famous Caldera appeared.

If you look at the map, you will notice that the island of Santorini and the islands closest to it form a circle - once in their place there was land with a large mountain.

So in a strict sense, all these islands are part of one volcano. And in the everyday sense, a volcano is an uninhabited, lifeless and completely black island sticking out in the middle of the Nea Kameni caldera. That's what we came for.

The stop at Nea Kameni lasted about two hours.

There are trodden paths on the island; You could walk either with a guide or on your own.

We first walked on our own, and then joined the group to listen to the guide’s story.

You know, we were really scared. No, we were not afraid of an eruption when we arrived. We were scared to imagine how wild that prehistoric spectacle was, to which there were no witnesses left...

In some places, light smoke with the smell of hydrogen sulfide comes from under the surface.

Even such sparse, withered and dirty-gray vegetation causes bewilderment: how did something like this even appear here?

We smiled there just for the photo.

Still, no, this place is not romantic - Santorini...

We get dirty in our swimsuit, relax in Palea Kameni, moor at Oia

We are back on the ship and sailing to the hot springs to the neighboring island - Palea Kameni. It is also uninhabited (the church does not count), there is no vegetation. The guide on the ship is broadcasting through a bullhorn that you need to swim in the hot springs in dark swimsuits: they say there will be indelible color stains.

We half confirm: the stains actually appeared, and on green fabric. But then they washed off in the most ordinary way :) However, we do not recommend experimenting with white swimsuits.

And how (and for whom?) did they build a church there?

The yellower the water, the higher its temperature.

Next stop is the island of Thirasia. Time on the island is about two hours. The guide says that you can climb the stairs to the village, but we don’t need it. And no one, in my opinion, went.

And here is another inhabited island - Thirassia. Here excursion ships stop for lunch.

Guests are already waiting for guests on Tirassia: there are a dozen cafes at the pier, all with seafood of varying degrees of appetizing on display.

Lunch is not included in the excursion, only delivery to the cafe is included. Thank you, uncle, but we have lunch with us!

There are some semblance of beaches on the island, but swimming and sunbathing are inconvenient. In short, if not for this nice photo, one could consider it a stop for show.

This is the end of our excursion to the Santorini volcano! Then the ship proceeds to the port of Oia, where you can disembark if you want to take a walk through one of the most beautiful villages in all of Greece. That's what we did.

From the sea, Oya looks impregnable and harsh.

But the closer, the more welcoming :)

Advice to dear readers: If, by the will of fate, you find yourself in the port of Oia, do not spare 5 euros for a donkey, your legs and heart will later tell you “Thank you so much, master!” The climb to the top is steep and consists of more than 300 steps. When we saw the red-faced, gasping people at the very top, we felt sorry for them.

About the author Olga

Born in 1984 in the Voronezh region. She worked as a journalist and editor in Voronezh and Moscow. A great lover and connoisseur of the English language, co-author of the “Pattaya Guide” and author of the “Russian-English phrasebook for tourists in Thailand.”

The study of deep-sea sediments of the eastern Mediterranean Sea has made it possible to reconstruct the conditions of a grandiose volcanic catastrophe.
In cores taken from the bottom of the Aegean Sea, two layers of volcanic sediments were found, located at levels from 80 to 170 centimeters below the upper limit of bottom sediments. Together with small particles to a height of up to 50 km. Volcanic bombs and pumice of various sizes are flying. This type of volcanic ejecta material is called tephra.
The study of the extracted soil cores made it possible to reliably distinguish the upper and lower tephra, construct maps of the areal distribution of these two volcanic layers and determine their thickness. The configuration of the area where volcanic sediments were found and the nature of the thickness distribution of the two ash layers leave no doubt that this ash was formed as a result of eruptions of the Santorini volcano.
The greatest thickness of the lower ash layer, reaching 22 cm, was found southeast of Santorini. The ash spread up to 400 kilometers north of Santorini and up to 1,000 kilometers west, almost to Sicily. All islands in the Aegean Sea, including Crete, located within a radius of 200 km from Santorini, were covered with a layer of aeolian ash several centimeters thick.

The upper horizon of volcanic sediments (upper tephra) also reaches its greatest thickness near Santorini. 130 km southeast of the volcano, its thickness exceeds two or more meters. The ash that makes up this horizon reached the coasts of Africa, Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula to be deposited there in a layer exceeding 1 mm. The maximum distance over which the ash of the upper tephra was transported was no more than 700 km. In the places of its greatest accumulation, it was discovered that the ash layer of the upper tephra consists of three coarse-grained horizons and three fine-grained ones with sharp contacts between them. This indicates that the upper ash layer was formed as a result of three successive eruptions of Santorini, of which the first was the most powerful and ash-rich.

Based on this, it was concluded that Santorini twice took the form of the round island of Strongyli and twice disintegrated. The first time this happened in the late Pleistocene, 25 thousand years ago, when the lower layer of tephra was deposited on the seabed, and the second time, in the Minoan era, approx. 3400 years ago, when the top layer of tephra was deposited.

The further spread of volcanic sediments depends primarily on the direction and speed of high-altitude winds. After analyzing air currents in the eastern Mediterranean, scientists came to the conclusion that the distribution of lower tephra material indicates its transport by high-speed winds, which indicates a volcanic eruption in winter.
The upper tephra was deposited under conditions of lower wind speeds. This is consistent with the meteorological pattern of summer northwestern trade winds with relatively low speeds. The fact that the eruption occurred in the summer, before the harvest, is confirmed by the fact that there were almost no food reserves left in the jars found during archaeological excavations on Santorini.
The shape of the tephra fallout area allows us to conclude that the cloud, which covered the whole of Crete, some areas of the Peloponnese and Asia Minor, was transported in the southwestern direction. A meter-thick layer of tephra from that time was discovered on the island of Rhodes. A cloud of volcanic gases, vapors and dust should have covered an area much larger than the one where the tephra fell.

The lower layer of tephra dates back to approximately 25 thousand years ago. The date was determined based on the age of microorganism shells found in the soil cores.
The upper ash horizon turned out to be much younger. Although there is a fairly large scatter of figures, it is still certain that the upper tephra was formed less than 5 thousand years ago. The formation of the upper ash horizon was caused by the eruption of Santorini and is dated, quite reliably, by determining the absolute age of a carbon isotope in a piece of wood found under 30 meters of ash. Radiocarbon dating showed that this piece was separated from the tree between 1510 and 1310 BC. e. Around this period of time, a catastrophic volcanic eruption occurred. And then the central part of Strongile again sank into the depths of the sea, forming a lagoon-caldera.

The ash from the Santorini caldera and from the upper layer of bottom sediments of the Eastern Mediterranean are completely identical.

The catastrophic volcanic eruptions that took place on the islands of Indonesia can give an idea of ​​the events that took place 35 centuries ago in the Aegean Sea. In 1812, a new volcano was born on the island of Sumbawa, named Tambora. Over the three years of its activity, it grew to a height of four kilometers, and on April 15, 1815, a terrible explosion occurred, shortening the volcano from 4000 to 2851 meters. Clouds of ash covered the sky over an area with a radius of up to 500 kilometers: there was complete darkness here for three days. At the site of the explosion, a caldera 700 meters deep and six and a half kilometers in diameter was formed.
The eruption of Krakatoa occurred in August 1883 in the Sunda Strait. On August 26, residents of the island of Java, located 160 km from Krakatoa, heard a noise similar to thunder. At 2 p.m. A black cloud about 27 km high rose above Krakatoa. At 5 p.m. The first tsunami occurred. Before noon on August 27, several more tsunamis occurred. The explosions continued throughout the night, but the most powerful of them occurred on August 27. Gases, vapors, debris, sand and dust rose to a height of 80 km and dispersed over an area of ​​over 827,000 km, and the sound of explosions was heard in Australia and off the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa.
Hot ash and debris covered many hundreds of square kilometers. The wave caused by the explosion traveled around the entire globe. Its speed reached 566 kilometers per hour, and its height was 35 meters.
Explosions occurred throughout the autumn of 1883, and only on February 20 of the following year the last eruption occurred. During the eruptions, at least 18 km of rocks were thrown out, two-thirds of which fell in an area with a radius of 15 km from the explosion site. The sea north of Krakatoa became shallow and unnavigable for large ships. As a result of these explosions, only the southern half of the cone was preserved, and in place of the rest of the island, a depression with a diameter of about 7 km was formed in the ocean.
The crater created by the Santorini explosion is much larger and deeper than the crater created by the Krakatoa explosion. This means that the eruption of Santorini-Strongyle was even more powerful. During it, 70 cubic kilometers of rock were thrown out, that is, three to four times more than during the Krakatoa explosion.

Before the catastrophe that formed the upper tephra, Santorini represented a complex group of volcanic cones fused with each other, located mainly along its periphery. First, the large island of Thira arose with a volcanic cone height of about 1600m. Gradually, the large island merged with small islands located to the south.
After the disaster, a collapse caldera appeared and most of the island collapsed into the water. It is possible that the interior of the Santorini archipelago, even before the disaster, was partly a lagoon or a flat area formed due to the removal of volcanic products from the volcanic mountain range that framed the island. This point of view is supported by an analysis of volcanic emissions that immediately preceded the disaster. Geological observations indicate that the first manifestations of volcanism did not foreshadow disasters. Geologists divide the pumice emissions accumulated during the eruption into three layers. The lower, “pink” pumice erupted at a lower temperature. During the period of its formation, one or several vents were active in the northern part of the island. The middle group of pumice layers, found in the south and east of Thira, is distinguished by pronounced irregular bedding. This indicates a series of weak to moderate explosive eruptions separated by quiet intervals. The absence of fragments of ancient lavas indicates the activity of former vents. The release of huge masses of gas-rich magma inevitably caused the roof of the underground reservoir to collapse. This process could have begun during the eruptions, but was most pronounced shortly after their end.

The oldest population of Santorini, which appeared here ca. 3000g. BC e., was pre-Greek. The presence of the influence of Minoan Crete was established during excavations on Akrotiri, when from under a 40-meter layer of volcanic ash an entire village of two or three storey houses, decorated with frescoes that resemble the wall paintings of Minoan palaces, was dug up.
During excavations in the harbor of Akrotiri, a city destroyed by an earthquake was discovered. According to scientists, its area was one and a half square kilometers. Nearby, a residential structure, vessels from the Minoan period, fragments of a loom and large cinder blocks were discovered under a layer of ash. The frescoes were discovered under a multi-meter layer of ash. They depicted plants, birds, the landscape of the island before the eruption, gracefully walking antelopes, a bowed palm tree, boys boxing in special gloves, a procession of women with sacred gifts and an ape-like creature painted blue. The city found on Tire is not inferior in size and splendor to Knossos, the center of the island of Crete. The Santorini volcanic massif was surprisingly well adapted for creating an impregnable military fortress there, so it was on Tire that it was most advisable to keep a navy in case of attack by enemies and in order to extend its power to remote territories of the Mediterranean.
Akrotiri turned out to be empty; it was possible to find out that the evacuation of people took place long before the eruption - grass had time to grow on the walls of abandoned houses before they were covered with ash. The explosion of the volcano destroyed the northern part of the city, covered the southern part with a multi-meter layer of ash, and some blocks went under water, to the bottom of the lagoon. Their remains were found at a depth of 20 meters.

F. Fouquet at one time discovered that despite the enormous force of the eruption and the proximity of the caldera, Minoan buildings on the island of Thira were preserved under a layer of tephra in relatively good condition. On this basis, he concluded that the eruption was not preceded by any strong earthquakes, and that it began with a sudden powerful release of ash and pumice that covered the Minoan settlements. Therefore, by the time the island collapsed, part of the settlements around the future caldera had already been buried by a thick layer of tephra.

In 1939, archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos, based on excavations of a Minoan villa at Amnisos on the northern coast of Crete, concluded that the Minoan civilization was destroyed by an eruption on the nearby volcanic island of Santorini. Layers of ash and volcanic pumice were discovered in Amnisos, Marinatos suggested that the walls of the villa collapsed from the impact of a huge tidal wave caused by a volcanic eruption. The fact that Thera erupted during the Bronze Age was beyond doubt: ceramics from the Minoan period had already been discovered in the debris of volcanic origin. In 1967, streets lined with Minoan-era houses were revealed under a thick layer of volcanic ash and tephra. In some houses, beautiful colored frescoes and intact ceramics were discovered. In the late 1980s, it became apparent that the eruption occurred approximately 150 years before the destruction of Knossos and the great Minoan palaces.

According to archaeological data, all the Cretan palaces of the Minoan era on the northern and eastern shores of the island were destroyed simultaneously at the end of the 15th century. BC. The coastal settlements of Crete were abandoned suddenly, the population took refuge in impregnable mountain shelters in the center of the island. After this event, some palaces were subsequently reoccupied, but only partially; others were abandoned forever. During excavations of the palaces of Crete, archaeologists discovered pieces of pumice, as well as sintered pieces of other volcanic rocks mixed with sulfur.
Until recently, there was fairly widespread support for the hypothesis that the destruction of all cities and large settlements on Crete was caused by tsunamis, earthquakes and air shock waves generated by the explosion of Santorini. This was one of the main reasons that undermined the power of the state to such an extent that it became an easy prey for its neighbors.
The hypothesis is now being refuted with the same enthusiasm with which it was previously supported. Opponents argue that a single natural disaster could not lead to the disappearance of an entire civilization.

Volcanic emissions cover the island to a height of 30-35 meters. And in some places they reach hundreds of meters. The wind scattered tens of millions of tons of ash and pumice throughout the Aegean Sea and even carried it to North Africa, Asia Minor and Macedonia. Anafi Psara, Kos, Milos, Naxos and other Cyclades islands were covered with a layer of ash more than ten centimeters thick. The same layer of ash fell on Crete, in its central and eastern parts, the most densely populated areas of the island. This is quite enough to seriously damage fruit trees, destroy crops and grass in pastures and, thereby, cause mass deaths of livestock. Under the threat of famine, the surviving population of Crete was forced to leave the fertile valleys of the central and eastern parts of the island and go to the regions of western Crete.
During the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland in 1783. volcanic ash that covered the entire country caused mass deaths of herbivores from starvation. A mixture of volcanic gases and ash formed a bluish smog that enveloped Iceland, causing great damage to grain and feed crops and leading to hunger and lack of food. The consequence of all this was the death of half the cows, three quarters of the sheep and horses, and the population of Iceland decreased by a fifth.
During the eruption of Mount Katmai in Alaska in June 1912. pyroclasts that fell in the vicinity of the city of Kodiak, 160 km southeast of the eruption, formed a layer 25 cm thick and completely drowned out small vegetation. All streams and wells here were filled with ash. The livestock had to be taken out, and it was possible to return it only after 2 years, when the pastures were revived.

The explosion on Santorini caused a powerful earthquake. But if at the epicenter the strength of the earthquake exceeded 10 points, in Crete it decreased to 8 points. However, great damage to Crete was caused not only by the tsunami and volcanic ash, but also by the blast wave that came to the island after the earthquake that followed the Strongyle explosion.
During the eruption of Krakatoa, the roar of the explosion was heard over an area equal to 1/13 of the globe. The air shock waves broke glass in houses as far as 150 km away, and in some cases damaged houses as far away as 800 km from Krakatoa. This means that on the Cyclades Islands and Crete, located 100-150 km from Santorini, the blast wave should have caused significant destruction. It is possible that the destructive effect of the air wave was even greater than the earthquake. Disasters also struck neighboring lands. This primarily applies to Egypt.

The Minoan eruption was not the last page in the history of Santorini. Vulcan was silent for 1200 years.
In 197 BC. e. A small island formed by lava appeared in the Santorini lagoon. The Roman philosopher and naturalist Seneca, in his work “Questions of Natural Science,” speaking about the forces shaping the face of the planet, included among them “air pressure,” which “can scatter the earth over a large area, erect new mountains, create in the middle of the sea never before seen islands." And Santorin was cited as an example: “Who can doubt that Thera, Therasia and this new island that appeared in the Aegean Sea before our eyes were produced by air?”
In 46 AD e. Another volcanic island was born. In 60 a new eruption merged the islands together. Palia Kameni was the first island to form after the Minoan eruption.
Masudi reported that in 535. A strong earthquake occurred in the Nile Delta, the earth sank, and the sea poured onto the land. At the same time, there was a significant change in the coast of Crete, the surrounding islands and the underwater relief of the Aegean Sea.
In 726, another eruption at the bottom of the lagoon increased the area, and then the volcano subsided. Several explosions scattered volcanic material several kilometers around. The viscous magma that later filled the crater appeared as a black tongue of lava on the northeastern coast of Palea Cameri. The chronicler Theophanes recorded the eruption of 726: “In the summer of this very year, from the depths of the sea between the islands of Thira and Tirassia, heat began to bubble from a fiery furnace. It bubbled for several days, and increased all the time, and soon became a pillar of fire and smoke "became like fire, and from the thickness of this continuous fiery curtain huge pumice stones flew throughout Asia and the island of Lesbos and Abydos and to all parts of Macedonia, which was located beyond the sea."
In 1452 he woke up again, increasing the area. The destruction of Palia Kameni probably happened between 1457 and 1458. The last time this volcano showed its activity was in 1508, completing the formation of the island of Palea Kameni.
Underwater eruptions that lasted three years, from 1570 to 1573, about two and a half kilometers northeast of Palea Kameni gave birth to the island of Mikra Kameni.

On September 14, 1650, a powerful eruption of an underwater volcano began on the northeastern side of the island of Thira. It was accompanied by earthquakes that did not stop day or night.
An unusually strong volcanic process occurred in the center of the ring in 1707, it was not interrupted for five years. In 1707, two volcanic cones appeared, called Aspronisi and Makronesi. Then, within five years, they united and Nea Kameni arose. The eruptions from 1701 to 1711 were very interesting from a geological point of view, because it was one of those rare cases when it was possible to observe a volcano appearing in the sea. On May 21, 1711, three days after the violent eruption, a white island could be seen appearing. It continued to grow, and after a few days, the people of Santorini discovered black lava, pumice, and marine life still living on it. The island grew slowly, reaching a width of 600 meters and a height of 80 meters. On June 5th a fire was seen, after which a new black island appeared in the north. On September 12th, the black island became so large that it merged with the white one. Nea Kameni was 910 meters long in the south, 1650 in the west and 1440 in the east. The height of the island reached 106 meters.
Jesuit Gori observed the eruptions of 1707-1711 from Skaros Castle. "And between this small island and the Great Kammeni, on the 23rd of May 1707, in the middle of the day, the New Island, of which I will now speak, first appeared on the surface of the earth. Be that as it may, the fishermen discovered the island early in the morning, but unable to understand what it was, some took it for a sunken ship, shipwrecked and drifting on the sea.As soon as the fishermen realized that it was a new island, they were afraid and quickly rushed to the shore, spreading rumors throughout the island, which they readily believed, since all the residents knew, and some even saw, what happened in 1650."
1712 “At this time, the White Island, which seemed higher than Lesser Kameneni, and could be seen from the first floor of Skaros Castle, now began to sink and sink so that it was already difficult to see from the second floor.”

Volcanic activity in the lagoon resumed in 1866, when eruptions began in Vulcan Bay on the shores of Nea Kameni. As a result of the eruption of 1866-1870, the area of ​​Nea Kameni almost quadrupled. In 1925-1926 and 1928, a new underwater eruption further increased the area of ​​Nea Kameni; The eruption of 1939-1941 contributed to the growth of the island. In 1945, a volcano created the new island of Daphne. This island grew rapidly and connected Mikra-Kameni and Nea-Kameni. The last eruption on Santorini, which occurred in 1950-1956, once again increased the size of Nea Kameni.
The most powerful (Minoan) eruption of Santorini was not known either in the classical era or in the Middle Ages. Only the study of the geological structure of the island of Thira, begun at the end of the 19th century, and oceanological research in the Eastern Mediterranean made it possible to establish this grandiose geological phenomenon.

The eruptions of Santorini, which occurred in the Middle Ages, were described in detail by the Abbot of Pegu in 1842. He was the first researcher to understand that the space between the islands of Thira, Thirasia and Aspronisi from the Santorini group is a giant caldera submerged by the sea, formed as a result of the collapse of a once-existing single volcanic island.

The Santorini volcano (crater diameter - 1680 m; height was 1.5 km) is an active shield volcano on the Greek island of Santorini (Thira).

History of eruptions of Santorini volcano

For the ancient Cretans, Thira acted as a metropolitan island: the slopes of Mount Santorini were occupied by the capital and other settlements, and at its foot there was a harbor.

Due to the eruption, which dates back to 1645-1600 BC, settlements on the island and on the Mediterranean coast were destroyed. Thus, due to a tsunami (height - 18 m), the Minoan civilization of Crete was destroyed (the ash cloud spread over 1000 km). In addition, this process led to the collapse of the volcanic cone, and sea water poured into the resulting abyss.

It is worth noting that the island of Thira “shaked” more than once: the largest (Minoan) earthquake is dated 1628 BC, the next (most powerful) – 1380 BC, and the last – 1950 (now a volcano “ sleeps”, but did not go out). The reason lies in the fact that Thira is located at the junction of the Eurasian and African plates, which is why this area is rugged by volcanic relief and volcanic activity occurs here.

What’s interesting: Plato, the author of the dialogues “Critias” and “Timaeus,” described Atlantis as an island-state that disappeared from the face of the earth under mysterious circumstances. Existing versions say that: the island of Thira is Atlantis; Atlantis was destroyed by the explosion of the Santorini volcano.

Santorini for tourists

The crater of the Santorini volcano is located on the island of Nea Kameni (there are active mini-craters - sulfur compounds come out of them to the surface) - everyone is taken there on small boats and on larger tourist boats.

If you are planning to climb the crater of a volcano, you will have to climb a rocky lava trail to a height of 130 meters; If you wish, you can walk around the crater, from here you will see a wonderful panorama of the island of Santorini and the Aegean Sea. Don't forget to provide yourself with water (there are no fresh water sources on Nea Kameni) and comfortable shoes. In addition, it is worth taking a swimsuit with you, since the trip to the volcano is combined with a visit to the healing thermal springs in Palea Kameni (another attraction of the island - the Church of St. Nicholas), in which you can and should swim (give preference to a dark-colored swimsuit - because due to the high content of various minerals it may become colored).

The boat tour includes several stops:

• The first stop is the volcano (charitable contribution - 2.5 euros): an English-speaking guide will tell you about legends and interesting facts, after which tourists will have free time to enjoy unforgettable views and take unique photographs.
• The second stop is the Palea Kameni springs (30 minutes - 1 hour will be allocated for swimming).
• The third stop is Thirassia: there for two hours you will be able to admire the local beauty, relax on the beach, visit one of the 21 churches, as well as a Greek tavern, where visitors are treated to local delicacies.
• The final stop is Oia: here you can visit souvenir shops and admire the famous sunsets. The western part of the resort overlooks Amoudi Bay. The eastern part of the resort also deserves attention - it offers views of the Gulf of Armenia.

And after a busy excursion day, tourists are returned back to the old port of Fira (approximate cost of the tour is 42 euros).

Sights of Santorini island

On Santorini, a volcanic island, tourists will be invited to visit the Archaeological Reserve (a visit will cost 5 euros; open from 8 am to 8 pm in June-October; closed on Monday), located in Akrotiri. In its vicinity, excavations were carried out and the ruins of a city of the Minoan civilization were discovered, namely, 2-3 storey houses well preserved under the ashes of the volcano, the facades of which were lined with stone slabs; wall paintings that decorated the interior; Houseware; marble anthropomorphic sculptures; animal figurines; various vessels; the only gold object in the form of a figurine of a golden capricorn.

In addition, the Archaeological Museum deserves the attention of tourists (it is a repository of finds found during excavations of Ancient Thera and Akrotiri - funerary artifacts, red and black-figure vase paintings, vessels with geometric patterns and other things; admission costs 3 euros) and the Museum of Prehistoric Thera (the exhibition allows you to admire Neolithic pottery, a jug from Megalochori, a Minoan vase from Akrotiri and other interesting objects; a visit will cost 3 euros) in the city of Fira.

Travelers also happily relax on the amazing local beaches, covered with both red and black sand. Pay attention to Perivolos Beach, where you can rent a straw umbrella and sunbed, go diving or windsurfing, and also hold a wedding ceremony.