SANTORY will establish a cutting-edge seafloor observatory using innovative marine technology (integrating hyperspectral and temperature sensors, a radiation spectrometer, fluid/gas samplers and pressure gauges) within the most-active submarine Mediterranean volcano, Kolumbo. It is located just 7 km NE (500m b.s.l.) of the well-known Santorini volcanic island and its hydrothermal system emits mantle-derived fluids consisting of nearly pure gaseous CO2 together with aqueous fluids venting at 220oC. SANTORY will build an open-access data hub using innovative visualization and virtual reality technologies to present the volcanic dynamics driving scientific knowledge advances and communicating hazards to the society in easy to understand ways. The outcomes of SANTORY will provide the impetus for much needed multidisciplinary collaboration in Greece and across EU and will be a first step for understanding of such natural laboratories to underpin development of next-generation shallow volcanic seafloor observatories.

In this context, a highly interdisciplinary team of national and international scientists and researchers together with experts in technology and engineering will cooperate to develop State of the Art (SoA) approaches and equipment and openly disseminate valuable data, methods and monitoring practices. 

SANTORY will invest a significant effort to provide methodologies and tools to enable long-term data acquisition, efficient response to existing geohazards, shape future policies for the global community and eventually offer worldwide solutions to researchers, policy makers and organizations.

The developed technological and monitoring capacity will be scalable both in terms of the suite of sensors, as well as the deployment depth, and straightforwardly adaptable to different submarine volcanoes and active fault zones (e.g., Amorgos or North Anatolian fault zones) within Greece and other parts of the world.

Carey S., Nomikou P., Croff Bell K.C., Lilley M., Lupton J., Roman C., Stathopoulou E., Bejelou K., Ballard R. (2013). CO2 degassing from hydrothermal vents at Kolumbo submarine volcano, Greece, and the accumulation of acidic crater water. Geology 41 (9), pp.1035.

Hooft E.E.E., Nomikou P., Toomey D.R., Lampridou D., Getz C., Christopoulou M.-E., O’Hara, D., Arnoux G.M., Bodmer M., Gray M., Heath B.A., VanderBeek B.P., (2017). Backarc tectonism, volcanism, and mass wasting shape seafloor morphology in the Santorini-Christiana-Amorgos region of the Hellenic Volcanic Arc. Tectonophysics 712-713, pp.396.

Nomikou P., Hübscher C., Carey S. (2019): The Christiana–Santorini–Kolumbo Volcanic Field. Elements; 15 (3): 171–176.