A Tale of Two Kinds of Volcanoes -- Mineral Clues (IMAGE)

University of Johannesburg

A Tale of Two Kinds of Volcanoes -- Mineral Clues

Caption

Why a big volcanic blow-up at the popular travel destimation Santorini 3200 years ago, but just a few hundred kilometers away, no drama at the volcanoes on Aegina , Methana and Poros islands? Thin sections of the lavas from these four volcanoes yield some of the reasons why. Some minerals only form at greater depths - and the hornblende in the lava from Aegina island indicates that the magma chambers there are deeper than the those underneath the Santorini caldera. But plate tectonics add another, hidden reason also, found research from the University of Johannesburg.

Credit

Prof Marlina A. Elburg, University of Johannesburg

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