Giant Magma Ball Threatens Island Santorini

By on September 9, 2012 in News

A huge balloon of magma about 15 times the size of London’s Olympic stadium is growing beneath the holiday island of Santorini.
Geologists led by Oxford University say the chamber of super-heated rock expanded from ten to 20million cubic metres between January 2011 and April this year.
The balloon is so big it has forced the Greek island upwards by 14cm (5.5in) in that time. It also triggered a series of small earthquakes, the first seismic activity in 25 years.
The movements were spotted by Michelle Parks, an Oxford University DPhil student, on field trips and using satellite radar images.
‘The tour guides, who visit the volcano several times a day, would update me on changes in the amount of strong smelling gas released from the summit, or changes in the colour of the water around the islands,’ Ms Parks told Nature Geoscience.
The team says the magma balloon does not mean an eruption is about to happen. Neither can they answer the biggest question: when will it erupt?
Santorini is loved by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and Take That’s Mark Owen among others.
It was devastated by an enormous volcanic explosion in about 1620BC.
(source: Oxford University, metro UK)

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  • Jason

    Loved by Rupert Murdoch? Is that all that you have regarding people who like to go there? How about the millions of other people who are not scumbags?

  • Not “Rupert Scum Murdoch”

    Agree with Jason here – what the hell was the point of that 2nd from last sentence ?? “Loved by Rupert Murdoch ???” Having a sentence with the word Love and that scum in it just don’t fit. How about saying … “Santorini is loved by millions of visitors from all over the world who have visited this unique Greek island” rather than mention that piece of trash !! Poor, poor journalism here !!

  • Plesemann

    Have to agree with other posters re naming two people when the island has admirers from all over the world. I’ve always thought it was beautiful, and I’ve not even been there! Plus, I’m sure the residents love it as well. Let’s hope this activity isn’t going to increase and cause any type of devastation.

  • Gb101

    get out of there fast!

  • Lazy

    Poor piece of journalism, for both the reasons detailed in previous comments and the lack of factual accuracy. This isn’t the “first seismic activity in 25 years” – the paper’s abstract only states that there has been “an increase in the rate of micro-seismic activity beginning in January 2011″.

    Although to be fair the article is copied directly from the UK Metro newspaper’s website so I guess we can only accuse Mr Papapostolou of laziness.