Santorini volcano unrest 2011/12:

According to the latest seismic and satellite (InSAR and GPS) data, the uplift at the Santorini volcano (2011-2012) has has come to an end.
Read the whole entry

Map of recent earthquakes around Santorini during the past 3 months (Univ. Thessaloniki)

Earthquake activity at and near Santorini has calmed down again after the brief pulse in quakes mostly along the Amorgos Graben to the NE at the end of December.

Small earthquake swarm near Amorgos Island

Location of recent quakes (Univ. Thessaloniki)

A probably tectonic-in-origin swarm of earthquakes has started yesterday half way between Kolumbo volcano and Amorgos island NE of Santorini. During 26 Dec, about 11 quakes of magnitudes around 2 at depths between 10-25 km occurred in this area. A few more weak quakes have occurred near Santorini itself.
Some earthquakes in slightly elevated numbers have reappeared at Santorini. For now, this might mean nothing much unusual, but it is a volcano we closely watch for obvious reasons.

A not entirely serious update on volcanic tremor on Nea Kameni

Seismic signals of Nea Kameni station on 17 Oct 2012

When our current group of the Fascination Volcano tour visited Nea Kameni today, we decided to test the seismometer. Here are the results - tremor and volcanic earthquakes triggered by tourists!

Unusual seismic activity at Santorini?

In recent days, many posts have sprung up again speculating about increased seismic activity at Santorini.
We cannot see any such. The live seismic recordings show normal noise, day-time activities and weather signals as well as spikes from quakes throughout the region all the time but most likely has not much to do with the volcano.
No unusual concentration of earthquakes has occurred near the island in the past weeks.

Decreasing seismic activity

Earthquakes around Santorini during the past 3 months (Univ. Thessaloniki)

Overall, seismic activity has been decreasing a lot on Santorini - compare the recent plot of quakes around Santorini with one from 2011 or early 2012.
What caused the inflation and quakes during 2011-early 2012 has stopped doing so at least for now. Most likely, that was magma rising from depth into shallow reservoirs beneath Nea Kameni (called an intrusion), and has now "settled" and is slowly cooling without making it to the surface, i.e. erupt.

2.7 quake SW of Santorini - the seismic signal

This is what a (small) magnitude 2.7 earthquake in 25 km distance at 20 km depth looks like on the seismograms of Santorini and gives an idea about how sensitive they are.
You can see the quake at 16:07 in today's earthquake list.

New volcanic tremor?

HT2 Vourvoulos station (Univ. Thessaloniki) 7 Aug		HT2 Vourvoulos station (Univ. Thessaloniki) 8 Aug		HT2 Vourvoulos station (Univ. Thessaloniki) current - the pattern is always similar
HT3 Nea Kameni station (Univ. Thessaloniki) 7 Aug		HT3 Nea Kameni station (Univ. Thessaloniki) 8 Aug		HT3 Nea Kameni station (Univ. Thessaloniki) current

Looking at recent seismic plots, one might get the impression that volcanic tremor is visible, but this cannot be judged without spectral analysis, and could simply be noise due to night-day rythms or malfunctioning of the instruments.
This fits the observation that the apparent increase of seismic activity usually is visible after about 7am local time (see images). This is true for most stations except perhaps the one on Nea Kameni which usually reflects noise induced by visitors on the island during the day, but had some strong signals outside this normal time during the past days. This could very well be malfunctioning, but we cannot know, unfortunately.
At the moment, there is no official statement about whether anything out of the usual is going on under Santorini seismically. No particularly increase number of earthquakes have been published.
Even if there was, one might doubt that authorities would say anything that could sound alarming about the volcano right now, around the peak of the summer, i.e. 15 August...

Check online seismic data at: webcams.volcanodiscovery.com/Santorini

Map of earthquakes around Santorini (

The number of quakes has slightly picked up at Santorini. 4 earthquakes have occurred on 27 July to the NE of Santorini, near the submarine Kolumbo volcano. The quakes are small, but their number is higher than normally (but this probably does not mean much).
No significant seismic activity has been recorded at Santorini recently. It seems that the probable magmatic intrusion that started deformation and seismic unrest since 2011 is coming to an end.
No significant seismic activity has taken place at Santorini over the past days.

Small earthquake swarm on SW part of Santorini

Earthquakes at Santorini 15 Feb - 15 May 2012

Another small swarm of quakes seems to be occurring at Santorini, this time concentrated in the SW area of the island.

Earthquake swarm on the Kolumbus line

Earthquakes at Santorini 8-9 May 2012 (Natl. Observatory Athens)

Another seismic swarm has been occurring at Santorini volcano in the past days, located on the SW-NE line running through the caldera and the Kolumbos submarine volcano (referred to as the Kolumbos line), and to the SW of the island along the same lineament. The largest quake was a 2.2 magnitude at 11.3 km depth at Kolumbos volcano on 8 May.

Earthquake swarm SW of Santorini

During the past weeks, Santorini has been relatively calm. A few earthquakes occurred mainly SW and NE of the island recently, showing that unrest continues.
Notably another small seismic swarm occurred in the area of the early January swarm at a tectonic fault line located 50 km SW of the island between 28 and 30 April. The quakes were at depths around 5-15 km and included 3 quakes around magnitude 3, the largest quake being a 3.7 magnitude at 10 km depth on 30 April.

Small earthquake swarm at Santorini

Seismic swarm at Santorini

A small earthquake swarm has been occurring at the western margin of the caldera during the past few days. The swarm consists of about 10 quakes of 1-2 magnitude at 7-8 km depth.
We have just visited Nea Kameni volcano. There are no visible changes. An infrared thermal camera has been installed to monitor Georgios crater.

Earthquake swarm south of Santorini

Earthquake activity at and near Santorini between 5 Jan and 4 April 2012

During the past days, a new earthquake swarm has been occurring near Santorini. This time, it is in an unusual location about 15 km south of the island, not on the principal volcano-tectonic SW-NE line crossing the caldera. The swarm consists of about 10 quakes at depths around 12-22 km with the largest event being a 3.0 quake at 22 km depth early yesterday.