The Legend of “Atlantis Legend” on Santorini Contribution to the Geology of Santorini

Abstract

Santorini has attracted the attention of both Geoscientists and Archeologists. The numerous high-angle faults of small dip-slip displacement were ignored by the geoscientists. The formations of domes by high-angle faults were also ignored. The discovery of a buried town, Akrotiri-with excellent buildings and artifacts, by Archaeologists and the destruction of the flourishing Minoan civilization and Knossos (Crete) in c. the same era caused a lot of interest. Plato in his “Dialogues” of Socrates with Kritias and Timaeus talked about a catastrophe of the island of Atlantis. Galanopoulos, who was the first and Archeologists suggested that the “Legend of Atlantis” was associated with the fall of huge Areas in Santorini, due to the “vacuum” after the gigantic amounts of ejecta. They miscalculated the amount of volcanic ejecta and misinterpreted the lineaments on the walls of the so-called “Caldera (s)” due to pseudo-layering. The author using the importance of the high-angle faults proves that the topography is mainly the result of faulting and neither of erosion nor of volcanism. The juxtaposed slopes of Thira-Thiresia formed fold-like structures and there was not any caldera collapse.