GEODETIC MONITORING OF THE SANTORINI (THERA) VOLCANO

Authors: Stiros, S.C.; Chasapis, Aris

Source: Survey Review, Volume 37, Number 287, January 2003 , pp. 84-88(5)

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Abstract:

Santorini (Thera) is a volcanic island complex dominated by a partly submerged caldera and famous from an eruption which buried the 3,500 years old Minoan town of Akrotiri. The volcano is active, and the last periods of its paroxysmal activity date to the 1920s, 1940s and 1950s, but in the last decades is dormant. A geodetic monitoring system aiming at an early identification of a future dilation of the caldera as a result of magma inflation was established in 1994, in the framework of an interdisciplinary project for the surveillance of this volcano.

The geodetic monitoring system consisted of a radial EDM network with a central point at the Nea Kammeni islet and 10 stations in the Thera and Therasia islands. Baseline lengths were ranging between 3.2 and 6.5km, most of the paths were > 100m above the water and survey stations are selected among those of the national geodetic network.

Between June 1994 and October 2000 six epochs of baseline measurements at a centimetre-level accuracy were made using an AGA 6000 Geodimeter and sampling of meteorological conditions at baseline endpoints at the height of 2m above ground. In October 2000 a radial GPS network has been installed on the same pillars and was measured using the kinematic method. A small-scale (a few-cm leve), gradual inflation of the northern part of the caldera (between Nea Kammeni and Therasia), possibly associated with magma ascent along a dike, has been inferred from EDM measurements.

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/003962603791482839

Publication date: 2003-01-01

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