Kolumbo, an underwater volcano off the Greek island of Santorini, has been quiet for over 400 years, but it is not sleeping.
The steady filling of a previously unknown magma chamber with melt has prompted geologists to urge real-time monitoring of the volcano.
The last time Kolumbo erupted, in 1650, it killed 70 people, but population development and tourism on Santorini mean an equal eruption today may be significantly more devastating.
Santorini braces as explosive volcano stir
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images
Kolumbo is a member of the very explosive volcano family, capable of creating an eruption column tens of kilometers high, as per The Guardian.
It also has the potential to cause a tsunami, making it a very frightening scenario.
Kajetan Chrapkiewicz of Imperial College London and his colleagues discovered melt two miles beneath the volcano using a novel imaging technology akin to medical ultrasound.
Their findings, published in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems, indicate that, while an eruption is not imminent, the volcano offers a major hazard.
Another group of researchers aboard the Joides Resolution research vessel is digging sediments near Kolumbo in order to recreate its eruption history over the last million years.
They intended to learn more about the relationships between earthquakes and volcanoes in this region, as well as the effect of sea-level change on the magnitude and frequency of eruptions.
A major volcanic explosion, possibly the greatest ever observed by humans, occurred in 1646 BC at Thera (present-day Santorini), an Aegean island near Crete, as per the Canadian Museum of History.
The explosion, which was believed to be the equivalent of 40 atomic bombs or nearly 100 times more powerful than the Pompeii eruption, ripped out the interior of the island and permanently changed its topology.
As a result of the volcanic eruption, up to 20,000 people may have died. Akrotiri, a village on Thera, was buried in a thick blanket of ash and pumice, just as Pompeii was centuries later.
The old Bronze Age village was buried for more than 3,500 years, one of Greece's numerous historical secrets.
The settlement of Akrotiri was then found by chance, as is often the case with many cultural sites.
Quarry workers were digging up pumice for use in the production of cement for the Suez Canal when they came across some stone walls in the center of their quarry.
These were subsequently discovered to be the ruins of a long-forgotten town.
Archaeologists from France and, subsequently, Germany conducted exploratory excavations in the second half of the nineteenth century, but systematic excavation at the site did not begin in earnest until 1967.
Spyridon Marinatos, with the assistance of the Archaeological Society of Athens, soon began excavating the ruins of the old town.
The subterranean houses were not only two or three stories tall, but the original building materials (clay and wood) had been ruined by earthquakes, fire, and the passage of time.
It was vital to go gently and cautiously. Work on the project has already lasted over four decades and is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
The Akrotiri site has not produced large quantities of gold, silver, and bronze objects, certainly not on the scale that could have been expected if the residents had been caught off guard.
But a magnificent visual heritage was left, most of which is being meticulously collected by Christos Doumas and his colleagues.
The paintings at Akrotiri are remarkable; they were unusually well-preserved by the protective ash layer that covered them, and their positions may be linked to various rooms around the town.
