Santorini – an island with an explosive history. About 3,600 years ago, the volcano at its core erupted, leaving the ancient island of Thera devastated, its inhabitants gone, and their towns destroyed. Researchers have long wondered how the Minoan civilisation of Santorini and Crete, which had dominated the Aegean, lost its power, and whether its fall was a result of the volcanic eruption.
A groundbreaking international scientific expedition aims to discover how the Minoan eruption unfolded, and what it meant for the history of the Aegean. By extracting kilometres of drill cores from the seafloor for the first time, scientists hoped to decode the complete geological history of this ancient vol- cano, and make projections of its future activities and consequences. The researchers’ insight could provide valuable insights into the Santorini volcano, and others like it across the world.
