Thirasia Volcano Research Paper

We took an original ciaque style boat to the caldera. A ciaque is a traditional wooden fishing boat with rigging and a sail. On the way to the caldera we learned about ancient Santorini and the eruption. There are three islands that make up Santorini: Thira, Thirasia, and Aspronisi. The original island was a single much larger island with a giant center lagoon surrounded by cliffs. After the Thera volcanic eruption 3,600 years ago only three smaller islands remained. The Minoan civilization that inhabited the island during the late Bronze Age was similar to the one on Crete. The eruption was one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history creating a large caldera with volcanic ash deposits meters deep. It created a tsunami that reached
The volcano has been slowly building on itself creating the peaks Palea and Nea Kameni. They emerged in 197BC and were first documented by Greek geographer Strabo. There have been eight eruptions with the last taking place in 1950. There were five points when climbing to the top of the caldera. The first point is near the peak of Mikiri, Kameni dome, the oldest part of Nea Kamini. It was created in 1570 and over time has developed rudimentary soil. The second point was on the south rim of the great Daphni crater. The crater is made up of scoriaceous lava. This is spongey lava that is filled with gaps from magma gas bubbles. We also viewed the Fouque and Reck lava domes that were formed from the eruption of 1939-1940. The third point was the central twin crater of Nea Kameni and was formed in 1940 by 2 hydrothermal eruptions. The east rim of the crater had a large number of fumaroles-hot gas vents that release a combination of water vapor, CO2, hydrogen sulfide, CO, and methane. The temperatures range from 75-95 degrees Celsius and they also deposit sulfur and gypsum crystals. The fourth point was the highest point of Nea Kameni at 127 meters. The peak is known as Georgis dome and was formed during the 1866-1870 eruptions. There was an amazing view of the caldera and amazing surrounding islands. The fifth point was in the valley to the east where we were surrounded by black and grey lava deposits. We made our way back to the boat and continued to the hot