Hidden magma chamber discovered in Kolumbo

A new magma chamber in the submarine volcano Kolumbo, which is even thought to be capable of erupting in the future, although not immediately, has been discovered by scientists.

It was announced in a recent paper published in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems by a team of scientists led by Kajetan Chrapkiewicz from the Department of Earth Sciences at Imperial College London. The chamber was identified at a depth of 2-4 km below the seafloor thanks to research for the first time with seismic waves and new-generation tomographic methods. The shape of the chamber resembles a mushroom, thinner at the base and wider at the top.

Scientists believe that the chamber may be key to understanding the intense seismic activity of 2006-07 and 2011-12 in this region of the Greek volcanic arc. The earthquakes appear to be related to increasing amounts of magma rising from greater depths toward the chamber.