Project Details
Projekt
Timing of environmental changes during the development of marine basins in Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo volcanic field, Aegean Sea (IODP Exp. 398)
Applicant
Dr. Olga Koukousioura
Subject Area
Geology
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 546918206
The volcanic eruptions and especially the ones that derive from island arcs can be of high impact to coastal communities as well as marine ecosystems by causing ocean acidification or fertilization. The Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo volcanic field is one of the most hazardous volcano-tectonic regions in the world since the volcano has produced many and highly explosive eruptions in the past and could be of a threat for at least eastern Mediterranean. This volcanic field produced the notorious early Bronze age Minoan eruption that is consider to have contributed to the fall of an entire civilization. Furthermore, the IODP Exp. 398 has found an unknown, until now, eruption that was six times bigger than the Minoan one, proving that most of the volcano-tectonic history of the CSK field, as the volcano-sedimentary sequences, is lying under the sea. Two of the primary objectives of IODP Exp. 398, the volcano-tectonic connection and the transition from continental to marine environments in the Southern Aegean (2, 6), were focused in two basins, of which Anhydros Basin showed the most continuous and successive transition of paleoenvironments. We propose to establish a highly-resolved (< 1 ka) age model for IODP Hole U1589A based on radiometric 14C dating and δ18O data from benthic and planktonic foraminifera, in order to define the timing of past environmental changes, with respect to volcanism and tectonics in the Anhydros Basin. The age model will be integrated with paleoenvironmental changes derived from benthic foraminifera and other proxy data produced by IODP Exp. 398. The integrated data sets will allow better understanding of environmental dynamics during the development of rift basins where volcanic eruptions and tectonics closely interact, and subsequently to contribute to a reliable risk assessment for the marine environments of eastern Mediterranean.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
International Connection
Austria, United Kingdom
Co-Investigator
Professor Dr. Patrick Grunert
Cooperation Partners
Professor Dr. Gerald Auer; Professor Dr. Adam Woodhouse
