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Today tourists flock to the spectacular Greek island of Santorini. But how many realise that its stunning scenery was birthed by one of the largest and most destructive volcanic eruptions in history? This eruption left a geological caldera surrounded by huge amounts of volcanic ash. In this album, Open University geologists Richard Thorpe and Steve Blake take us on a geological tour of the island. They piece together the likely sequence of events of the eruption which destroyed an ancient civilisation. This material forms part of the course: S339 Understanding the continents.
Track 2: Welcome to Santorini
The beautiful Greek Island of Santorini, the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions known to humanity. Dr Steve Blake looks at the structures of the island's volcanic rocks.
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Tracks in this podcast:
| Track | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Island Arc Magmatism: Santorini | A short introduction to this album. Play now Island Arc Magmatism: Santorini |
| 2 | Welcome to Santorini | The beautiful Greek Island of Santorini, the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions known to humanity. Dr Steve Blake looks at the structures of the island's volcanic rocks. Play now Welcome to Santorini |
| 3 | Santorini's Volcanic History | Steve Blake pieces together the volcanic history on the island by closely examining two different kinds of rock. Play now Santorini's Volcanic History |
| 4 | Volcanic Succesions in Santorini | Dr Richard Thorpe visits Oia on the North island of Santorini to look at Red Scoria, lava and Stratified pumice. Where Santorini sits geographically and how it originally became a caldera. Play now Volcanic Succesions in Santorini |
| 5 | Santorini: The Eastern Cliff | Richard Thorpe visits the Eastern cliff of the Caldera underneath the island's modern capital, Fira. He focusses on ancient 'deposits' in the succesions of the Scaros cliff, as well as flow-banding and tension gashes. Play now Santorini: The Eastern Cliff |
| 6 | The Minoan Eruption | Richard Thorpe and Steve Blake take a look at the remains of a Minoan fishing village, buried under pumice. How the myth of Atlantis is romantically linked to the island of Santorini Play now The Minoan Eruption |
| 7 | Santorini: The Western Island | Investigating the fourth minoan layer through the main cliffs of Fira. Explaining the 'air fall deposit'. Play now Santorini: The Western Island |
| 8 | Patterns in volcanic eruptions | Richard Thorpe and Steve Blake travel to the Kameni Islands to look at craters from volcanic eruptions. How a lack of pattern makes predictions impossible. . Play now Patterns in volcanic eruptions |
| 9 | The Crystal Fractionation experiment | Simulating a magma chamber in a laboratory to show how the process of Crystal Fractionation works. Play now The Crystal Fractionation experiment |
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