Post-eruptive flooding of Santorini caldera and implications for tsunami generation

P. Nomikou (), T. H. Druitt, C. Hübscher, T. A. Mather, M. Paulatto, L. M. Kalnins, K. Kelfoun, D. Papanikolaou, K. Bejelou, D. Lampridou, D. M. Pyle, S. Carey, A. B. Watts, B. Weiß and M. M. Parks
Additional contact information
P. Nomikou: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli Zografou
T. H. Druitt: Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Université Blaise Pascal—CNRS—IRD, Campus des Cézeaux
C. Hübscher: Institute for Geophysics, University of Hamburg
T. A. Mather: University of Oxford
M. Paulatto: Géoazur CNRS
L. M. Kalnins: Durham University
K. Kelfoun: Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Université Blaise Pascal—CNRS—IRD, Campus des Cézeaux
D. Papanikolaou: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli Zografou
K. Bejelou: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli Zografou
D. Lampridou: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli Zografou
D. M. Pyle: University of Oxford
S. Carey: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 215 S. Ferry Road, Narragansett
A. B. Watts: University of Oxford
B. Weiß: Institute for Geophysics, University of Hamburg
M. M. Parks: Nordic Volcanological Center, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Caldera-forming eruptions of island volcanoes generate tsunamis by the interaction of different eruptive phenomena with the sea. Such tsunamis are a major hazard, but forward models of their impacts are limited by poor understanding of source mechanisms. The caldera-forming eruption of Santorini in the Late Bronze Age is known to have been tsunamigenic, and caldera collapse has been proposed as a mechanism. Here, we present bathymetric and seismic evidence showing that the caldera was not open to the sea during the main phase of the eruption, but was flooded once the eruption had finished. Inflow of water and associated landsliding cut a deep, 2.0–2.5 km3, submarine channel, thus filling the caldera in less than a couple of days. If, as at most such volcanoes, caldera collapse occurred syn-eruptively, then it cannot have generated tsunamis. Entry of pyroclastic flows into the sea, combined with slumping of submarine pyroclastic accumulations, were the main mechanisms of tsunami production.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13332

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