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...
Akan-Mashu National Park: nests of volcanoes and calderas
You may have visited Crater Lake, Oregon's only national park. You may know that it is misnamed. A crater is the depression on the top of a volcano where lava and/or pyroclastic materials spew forth during eruptions. But Crater Lake should actually be called Caldera Lake. Calderas are formed when volcanoes are so explosive that they blow off a major...
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.