[Rockhounds] Never-before-seen volcanic magma chamber discovered deep under Mediterranean, near Santorini

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

A submarine volcano whose deadly eruption shattered the picturesque Greek
island of Santorini nearly 400 years ago has a growing, never-before-seen
magma chamber that could fuel another massive eruption within the next 150
years, a new study finds.

About 4 miles (7 kilometers) from Santorini, 1,640 feet (500 meters) under
the ocean's surface, lies the Kolumbo volcano. Kolumbo is one of the most
active submarine *volcanoes*
<https://www.livescience.com/27295-volcanoes.html> in the world, and
according to *historical accounts* <https://santory.gr/eruption/>(opens in
new tab), its last eruption in A.D. 1650 killed at least 70 people. A study
published Oct. 22, 2022, in the journal *Geochemistry, Geophysics,
Geosystems* <https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GC010475>(opens in new tab) revealed
that the previously undetected magma chamber growing beneath the Kolumbo
volcano could lead to another eruption, thus endangering residents and
tourists on Santorini.

Undersea volcanoes are monitored just like their on-land counterparts, but
because undersea seismometers are challenging to install, there are fewer
of them, which means scientists have less data on undersea volcanoes. In an
attempt to overcome this problem, researchers decided to try a different
technique to study the inner mechanics of Kolumbo.

Specifically, they used a method called full-waveform inversion, which
employs artificially produced seismic waves to create a high-resolution
image showing how rigid or soft the underground rock is.

https://www.livescience.com/mediterranean-volcano-growing-magma-chamber