Santorini Bulges as Magma Balloons Underneath

National Geographic - Brian Handwerk, 9/12/12

Satellites, GPS confirm "Atlantis" island's swelling.

Greece's Santorini was created by a volcanic blast 3,600 years ago.
Photograph by Scott Stulberg, Corbis

Santorini locals began to suspect last year that something was afoot with the volcano under their Greek island group. Wine glasses occasionally vibrated and clinked in cafes, suggesting tiny tremors, and tour guides smelled strange gasses.

Now satellite radar technology has revealed the source of the symptoms. A rush of molten rock swelled the magma chamber under the volcano by some 13 to 26 million cubic yards (10 to 20 million cubic meters)—about 15 times the volume of London's Olympic Stadium—between January 2011 and April 2012. The ballooning chamber even forced parts of the island's surface to rise upward and outward by 3 to 5.5 inches (8 to 14 centimeters).

To read the rest of this story (including some discussion of Atlantis), visit NationalGeographic.com.

 

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