See all Attractions in Santorini Island
Santorini Volcano
Santorini Island, Greece Phone: Not AvailableAbout
Santorini is located on the edge of a NE-SW-trending basement horst (formed due to a local extensional regime resulting from southward migration of the subduction zone) called the Santorini-Amorgos Ridge. The islands were shaped by volcanic activity but a pre-volcanic part of the ridge embedded in volcanic material forms the SE corner of the main island of Thera. First activity is estimated at 650000 years ago. Early lavas and tuffs can be found on the Akrotiri Peninsula but were largely the result of submarine eruptions and are today above sea level due to regional uplifting of the southern part of Santorini. Since 530000 years ago, activity has been largely concentrated around a graben adjacent to the basement horst on its NW side. The first subaerial volcanism at Santorini occurred between 530 and 430 thousand years ago and most significantly resulted in formation of several small cinder cones on Akrotiri Peninsula and the small andesitic Peristeria Volcano further north.
