Santorini volcano near eruption?

More than seventy years after its last eruption ceased the Santorini volcano has begun to fill with molten rock and expand, warning Greek authorities and European researchers despite no further signs of an imminent eruption. Geologists at the University of Oxford wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience that the volume of molten rock that’s accumulated since the start of 2011 amounts to as much as 50% of the amount expelled during Santorini’s smaller eruptions.

“If the present rate of inflation were to continue for a small number of years, the intruded volume would be equivalent to the volumes of previous eruptions,” the researchers added. However, volcanologists at Athens’ Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration said all registered activity is that of the ‘normal’ dormant state of the volcano so no eruptions may be registered in the short term.