This outcrop shows light-colored deposits from the 3,500-year-old Minoan eruption of Santorini filling a valley that eroded into darker tephra layers of Pleistocene age. The lower beige-colored unit filling the valley is a pumice-fall deposit from early in the eruption. It is overlain by laminated pyroclastic surge deposits that were produced when water came into contact with the magma reservoir as the volcano collapsed into the sea. The upper lighter-colored layer truncating both these deposits is a pyroclastic flow deposit.

Photo by Lee Siebert, 1994 (Smithsonian Institution).

This image is made available under the Public Domain Dedication CC0 license, but proper attribution is appreciated.

Galleries: Volcanic Outcrops | Craters

Keywords: outcrop | geology | stratigraphy | tephra

Santorini