Scientists find evidence of eruption that is rewriting ‘Santorini’s geological history’

Evidence of a previously unknown underwater eruption, one of the largest in the southern Aegean volcanic arc and older than the one that wiped out the Minoan civilization, has been discovered by a multinational team of scientists on the island of Santorini.

The discovery "is rewriting Santorini's geological history," according to Paraskevi Nomikou, a lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki's Geology Department and one of the scientists on the mission.

The results of the team's discovery have been published in the Nature Group journal "Communications Earth & Environment."

According to the paper, the team identified a giant pumice deposit, dubbed "Archaeos Tuff," which suggests that a shallow underwater eruption of Santorini's prehistoric volcano took place around 520,000 years ago (with a possible deviation of 10,000 years).

Thin volcanic...