Abstract
Kolumbo submarine volcano lies 7 km NE of Santorini caldera and its last eruption which occurred in 1650 AD, caused damage and casualties to the nearby islands. Here a simple model of a chamber, containing silicic magma underlain by a smaller quantity of mafic magma, is utilised in order to understand the chamber behaviour during the 1650 AD eruption. Results show that in order to reproduce the duration (83–281 days) and the dense rock equivalent volume ({sim },2, hbox {km}^3) of the eruption, initial overpressure in the chamber should be around 10 MPa and the mafic magma should occupy up to 5% of the chamber volume. It is found that the time needed to inject mafic magma equal to 1–15% of the chamber volume varies between 1.4–13.7 ka, if the radius of the chamber is about 1500 m as inferred from tomographic images. These long recurrence times agree well with the small number of eruptions (N = 5) within a period of > 70 ka and suggest that an eruption in the near future is unlikely. Volcanic activity at Kolumbo is probably triggered by a combination of exsolved volatiles and a small but steady influx of mafic melt in the chamber.
Highlights
Kolumbo submarine volcano lies 7 km NE of Santorini caldera and its last eruption which occurred in 1650 AD, caused damage and casualties to the nearby islands
Heat conducted to the wall rock around the chamber and the recharge rate of mafic magma are not included, since both processes affect the magma chamber over timescales much larger than the timescale of the eruption
Submarine volcanism can be a source of significant hazards for maritime traffic and for nearby islands as it can generate powerful underwater explosions, floating pumice rafts, tsunami and pyroclastic flows
Summary
Kolumbo submarine volcano lies 7 km NE of Santorini caldera and its last eruption which occurred in 1650 AD, caused damage and casualties to the nearby islands. Already since March 1650 the inhabitants of the nearby islands started experiencing damaging earthquakes and subterranean roaring that reached a climax around 14 September of the same year This time period probably corresponds to the pressurisation of the magma chamber and the formation of conduits that reached the seafloor, initiating the submarine stage of the eruption (Fig. 2). Explosions started occurring from 28 September onwards, while the eruption plume covered a large portion of the sky producing lightning and ejected incandescent rocks This marks the onset of phreatomagmatic activity, where the hot magma came into contact with sea water at atmospheric conditions rather than near the seafloor where hydrostatic pressure is high (cf Fig. 2). Estimates of dense rock equivalent (DRE) volume yielded a value of 2 km[3] or slightly larger[19]
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