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| Scenes from Santorini © Eugene Brennan |
A
beautiful island with its scenic cliff-top walk from the town of Fira
to Oia (pronounced E-ah) in the north. And the 600 or so steps from the
old port to the top of the cliffs are good leg exercise! The Minoan
eruption, one of the largest eruptions in recorded history, occurred
3600 years ago, leaving a collapsed caldera surrounded by water at the
centre of the island. In 1956, an earthquake with a magnitude of at
least 7.4 caused huge damage on the island, killing 53 people. Santorini
is one of the islands of the Cyclades group, on the boundary of the
African and Aegean tectonic plates, where tremors are common. Santorini
and neighbouring Milos both have dormant volcanoes.
More information in this BBC News report: