International research mission to the volcanic complex of Santorini
“Our findings are very important, scientists are excited. However, I cannot tell you more until the relevant scientific publications are made.” With this answer, the German Thomas Ronge , head of the research mission in Santorini … put an end to the most important question a journalist could ask him. However, although at this stage – when the mission is in progress – not much can be said, the scientific work itself is of great interest.
It’s not something that happens often. The vessel “Joides Resolution” , the largest research vessel of the USA (a drilling vessel), came to the Mediterranean for the first time and these days it is in the volcano of Columbus, halfway through its research mission in our country. On board is a group of scientists from the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), including Greeks. Its mission is to carry out underwater drilling at depths that have never been explored until now, thus revealing valuable information about the geological history of the volcanic complex of Christians, Santorini and Columbus.
“So far we have drilled in the Anhydros basin, between Amorgos and Io, and in the underwater volcano of Columbus, where we are these days. We will continue to the Caldera area and then to the Christiana islets,” explains Mr. Ronge. “So far we have extracted 1.5 kilometers of samples from the seabed, reaching the maximum depth we can, about 900 meters below the surface of the seabed.”
The process of obtaining the samples differs according to the type of rocks. “First, when we get to our chosen spot, they lower a series of thrusters into the sea, a kind of supplementary propellers, which help keep the ship exactly where it is until the sampling is complete. The drill then comes out of an opening in the middle of the ship and slowly starts drilling into the bottom. First, we take a sample from the soft surface rocks. Imagine a straw, dipping into a cake with different layers. Every ten meters, the cylindrical sample is withdrawn. Then, when we reach hard rock, normal drilling begins with a special machine until we reach the maximum depth.”
After being withdrawn, the cylinders, each 10 meters long, are cut lengthwise in half. The first half is kept as a file and the second is the “working piece”. What information will we get from this? “Greek, British and Japanese experts on board are observing the sample with a microscope looking for microfossils, shells of single-celled organisms that lived at specific times. Based on these we can date the sample. If we know the age, then we can estimate how often the volcano erupted. This is important information for the future as well, because volcanoes erupt in the same way (e.g. in Greece and Italy) and therefore if we know how often it happened in the past, we can calculate when it will happen again”, he explains Mr. Ronge.
“At the same time, which is particularly important for us scientists, it will help us understand submarine volcanic activity. How magma interacts with water, how eruptions are caused, how much material is produced by them, how destructive they are. Finally, in the Caldera, a Greek scientist specializing in microbiology (s.s. Paraskevi Polymenakou, from the Institute of Marine Biology of ELKETHE) will take samples for analysis, in order to determine how microbial organisms live in an active volcano.”
The mission will be completed on February 10, with the arrival of the vessel in Heraklion. From there he will return to Spain, where he will leave the samples which will be sent to Bremen, Germany, at the IODP facilities. “In July we will gather in Bremen for a week all the scientists who participated in the expedition for what we call… sampling party. It’s not as fun as it sounds: our samples will be cut into thousands of pieces and for a week we will all work there intensively. Then everyone will take the sample to their laboratory (the scientists come from many countries, such as France, England, America, Japan, China and in particular Greece) to continue the research work”, says Mr. Ronge. “The first scientific publication will be done, I estimate, by the end of the year. However, in such large scientific missions, it takes 2-3 years for most of the findings to be published. Each scientist has his own specialty and puts a piece in the puzzle to make the mission a success. So you’ll have to be a little patient.”
