Santorini follow up: why so many earthquakes?
In February this year, while we were preparing for our April–May trip to Cyprus, Crete and Santorini, we noticed many earthquakes popping off in Santorini. When looking at my QuakeWatch app, I saw that literally hundreds of earthquakes occurred each day—they were drowning out almost every other location on Earth! At the time, no one seemed to know the cause...
Santorini’s powerful Minoan-era eruption
Around 1600 BCE, a catastrophic volcanic event reshaped the island of Santorini, buried the Minoan settlement of Akrotiri, and had far-reaching consequences across the Mediterranean. When I first visited Santorini in 1989, I read that the eruption caused Minoan civilization to collapse. But researchers have continued to investigate the eruption's impact on the region and to refine the ages of...
The astonishing volcanic island of Santorini
Santorini is an immensely popular tourist destination, and for good reasons. One of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history created the dramatic landscapes that make this island one of the most beautiful in the world. Around 3600 years ago, during the Bronze Age (~1600 BCE) at the height of Minoan civilization, a massive eruption emitted vast quantities of...
Crete is rising during earthquakes, and rivers are cutting down
Crete is a fascinating place—it is quite mountainous and, although it's Greece's largest island, its population is only about 650,000 people. We spent most of our time there hiking along the southwest coast (see previous post: https://landscapes-revealed.net/cretes-gorgeous-gorges/). The large gorges where we hiked are evidence that rivers have been cutting downward as a result of the land rising. This post...
Crete’s Gorgeous Gorges
Crete is the largest island in Greece and it’s another remarkable Mediterranean destination for geologists or any outdoor enthusiast. In this post, I’ll describe the hikes we did in the southwest corner of Crete. In my next post, I’ll explain why there are so many deep gorges in Crete—it’s all about the geology of course! Itinerary of our self-guided tour...
About the Blogger
Karen (here with Mt. Shasta in background) is a geology professor emerita who aims to provide a "pocket geologist" for world travelers. Follow the blog to explore the landscapes of our planet and figure out what causes them to look the way they do.