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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