Continued Exploration of the Santorini Volcanic Field and Cretan Basin, Aegean Sea

The Hellenic Volcanic Arc lies in the southern Aegean Sea, formed by subduction of the African Plate below the European Plate. The Santorini complex, the most active volcanic center in the Hellenic Arc in recent times, is composed of three volcanic areas along the northeast-southwest Kameni and Kolumbo lines (Figure 1): the Kolumbo Volcanic Rift Zone in the northeast, Santorini in the center, and the Christiana islet group and submarine domes in the southwest (recent work of author Nomikou and colleagues). In 2011, we investigated the Santorini volcanic complex, as well as the back-arc Cretan Basin, continuing work that began in these regions in 2006 (Sigurdsson et al., 2006; Carey et al., 2011).