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Surprise Magma Chamber Growing Under Mediterranean Volcano (2023) (agu.org)
47 points by jandrewrogers 34 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 19 comments



Note date:

>> 12 January 2023

This may or may not be connected to the recent strong tremors in Santorini.

What I want to know is who named that thing "Kolumbo". That's not a Greek name. We got so much prime material for Greek-mythology inspired names of volcanoes. e.g. "Charybdis" would fit right in.


> This may or may not be connected to the recent strong tremors in Santorini

It isn’t related.

Explanation from geology professor Sean Willsey [1] — my go to source for anything geology related!

[1] https://youtu.be/4jREQ3EdEAY?feature=shared


Shawn mentions lack of observed ground deformation, but maybe he means near Kolumbo? There's a note[^1] on the EMSC site that has some figures for deformation at stations on Santorini, and it seems like it has been deflating while all this seismic expression is wandering northeastward? (I am not a geophysicist)

[^1]: https://www.emsc-csem.org/Files/event/1765158/20250213b-sant...


> lack of observed ground deformation

I think he replies to a comment where he says “lack of significant ground deformation”. He also mention the natural up/down movement of normal faults being a cause of ground deformation.

I’m sure if there’s new information that he’ll do a follow up. I’ve followed his channel for a while now — I’m not a geologist or geophysicist either — but I find his knowledge and careful and thoughtful analysis to be exceptional.


Mhm, agreed :)



> Sean

Shawn, my mistake!


It looks like it was the Venetians who coined the name, from colomba “dove”: https://www.sunanemos-santorini.gr/history.

This source it was people in Crete who named it. Ottomans conquered most of Crete in 1645 but Candia held till 1669 so it was probably the people in Candia who named it thus.


Wikipedia seems to agree with you:

Koloumpo (Greek: Κολούμπο) But the word "Kolumbo" is used 11 times in the article about "Kolumpo"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koloumpo


> But the word "Kolumbo" is used 11 times in the article about "Kolumpo"

This is just you not knowing that Κολούμπο is "Kolumbo". There's no discrepancy to explain; they are the same thing and "Kolumpo" would be an error.

It's still true that Columbo isn't a Greek name. But there's nothing unusual about its Greek spelling; there's no other way to spell "b" in modern Greek than "μπ".


> there's no other way to spell "b" in modern Greek than "μπ".

Did you mean "mb"?

Because surely "β" can be used for b, like in our friend κυβερνήτης (kubernetes)


You've confused modern Greek with ancient Greek.

Note also that the normal transcription of ancient Greek κυβερνήτης would be cybernetes (see: "cybernetics"), not kubernetes.


no, μβ would give you a /w/ not a /b/, because "β" is normally a /v/.


Out of curiosity, is that cluster used in any contexts that are not meant to approximate a 'b' sound?


There is a prefix -em (-εμ) which is used to formulate words containing the essence of "within", e.g. "εμπεριέχει" (emperiechei/"including"), or "εμπύρετος (empyretos/"feverish". The sound in such cases veers in the direction of "emp" rather than "eb", due to the prefix. It's still not a distinct m+p, but significantly less voiced than e.g. "μπύρα" (beer)


excellent comment, but for future reference: a prefix would normally be written "em-", with the hyphen noting the place where it attaches to its root word.


I haven’t seen it.


No one expects The Santorinian Explosition!


“Surprise magma chamber” is my least favorite geological feature.




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