Final Blog

Santorini’s volcanic landform was created by subduction; oceanic and continental crust subduction to be exact. When subduction occurs ocean crust collides with continental crust and subducts causing a volcano to form.  Santorini today is the result of a huge volcanic explosion that caused resulted in a caldera. Calderas form when land collapses following a volcano eruption. They are like deep holes in the ground where land submerges.

 Santorini enjoys a mild-mid latitude climate, a suitable fit for the Mediterranean. The mild- mid latitude climate indicates brings about dry summers and wet winters. The warm and dry season for Santorini begins in April and lasts until October, and the cold and rainy season starts from November through March.

Santorini has a coastal landscape since it’s surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Tides indeed form in the Mediterranean as the moon’s gravity pulls the sea water towards it creating lumps in the water. Waves form in orbital patterns that cause breakers such as spilling breakers. Spilling breakers are the small whitewater waves that you see right by the shore.

In 10 years, due to the rise of the greenhouse effect my guess is that Santorini’s temperature will increase. We’re emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere like crazy which plays a key role in global warming. Thus, if we keep the CO2 up the average temperatures for Santorini’s climate will increase, causing it to be much warmer.  A potentially dangerous consequence of global warming is a rise in sea level, which is currently happening.

Since Santorini is surrounded by water the greenhouse effect can have a major impact on its landform in 100 years or much less than that. First, major erosion can occur. Santorini’s coastal landform can be dramatically eroded resulting in sea stacks. This erosion mostly comes from storms, and global warming makes us more prone to storms and floods.  During this time there will also be weathering of rocks by both physical and chemical weathering since everything is always changing. My guess is that faults will also form because of the pressure put on rocks with the dramatic climate change. Going along with the global warming issue, if we do not do something about CO2 excess and change it now, it is possible that in 1000 years Santorini will no longer exist. It will be inundated due to a ridiculous rise in sea level caused by global warming.