Since the beginning of 2025, the area of ​​the famous island of Santorini has become an epicenter of a real seismic storm. For a month and a half devices more than 30,000 underground shocks recordedforced to recall the legends of Atlantis and caused the mass evacuation of the inhabitants. A powerful “seismic swarm” in the Aegean Sea, which touched the islands of Amorgos, Anafi and Ios, at first put scientists at a dead end.

The answer came from a large -scale international study, the results of which were published in the journal Nature. The work of 31 scientists from six countries gave an unambiguous conclusion: the reason was volcanic activity. It turned out that two volcanoes in this area - Santorini himself and his underwater neighbor Columbus - are a single, interconnected magmatic system.

Earthquakes began on January 2 and did not subside for more than a month. The tension reached such a level that An emergency was announced on the famous tourist islandschools closed, and the Greek authorities conducted a large -scale mobilization of civil defense forces.

The study, uniting the data of ground and marine seismographs with satellite dimensions, restored the picture of events. Activity began back in mid -2024 with the gradual expansion of Caldra Santorini - giant cavity at the site of an ancient eruption. And in January 2025, a key event occurred: a giant magmatic “tongue” rushed from the underground tank of Magma near the Columbus volcano to Santorini.

A stream known to a scientist as a "dike", reached a length of about 13 km and placed approximately 0.31 km³ of hot magma. Moving at a depth of 3-5 km under the seabed, he activated large tectonic faults in the region with his pressure, which caused a tremendous swarm of thousands of earthquakes.

Thus, nature demonstrated A powerful example of the "teamwork" of volcanoes. The crisis on Santorini was not the local problem of one island, but a consequence of complex processes in the common magmatic system, which is hidden deep underground for two volcanoes, writes Tovima.com.