The South Aegean Volcanic Arc is a chain of volcanic islands in the South Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

 formed by plate tectonics

Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...

 as a consequence of the subduction of the African tectonic plate beneath the Eurasian plate. The southern Aegean is one of the most rapidly deforming regions of the Himalayan-Alpine

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 mountain belt.

The active portion of the South Aegean Arc comprises a number of dormant and historically active volcanoes, including Aegina

Aegina

Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island. During ancient times, Aegina was a rival to Athens, the great sea power of the era.-Municipality:The municipality...

, Methana

Methana Volcano

The Methana volcano peninsula is situated approximately 50 km southeast of Athens in Greece.-Geological history:The Methana peninsula contains some 32 volcanoes, that are mostly andesitic / dacitic lava domes.The volcanic activity in the peninsula began one million years ago and continued...

, Milos

Milos

Milos , is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete...

, Santorini

Santorini

Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...

 and Kolumbo

Kolumbo (volcano)

Kolumbo is an active submarine volcano in the Aegean Sea, about 8 km northeast of Cape Kolumbo, Santorini island. The largest of a line of about twenty submarine volcanic cones extending to the northeast from Santorini, it is about 3 km in diameter with a crater 1.5 km across...

, and Kos

Kos

Kos or Cos is a Greek island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos. It measures by , and is from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Kos peripheral unit, which is...

, Nisyros

Nisyros

Nisyros is a volcanic Greek island and municipality located in the Aegean Sea. It is part of the Dodecanese group of islands, situated between the islands of Kos and Tilos. Its shape is approximately round, with a diameter of about , and an area of . Several other islets are found in the direct...

 and Yali

Gyali

Gyali is a volcanic Greek island in the Dodecanese, located halfway between the south coast of Kos and Nisyros. It consists of rhyolitic obsidian lava domes and pumice deposits. The island has two distinct segments, with the northeastern part almost entirely made of obsidian and the southwestern...

. Of these, only Santorini, Kolumbo and Nisyros have either erupted or shown any significant evidence of unrest during the past 100 years.

One of the most noted volcanic eruptions from this arc occurred on the island of Santorini in the second millennium BC; during this eruption the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 city of Akrotiri

Akrotiri (Santorini)

Akrotiri is the name of an excavation site of a Minoan Bronze Age settlement on the Greek island of Santorini, associated with the Minoan civilization due to inscriptions in Linear A, and close similarities in artifact and fresco styles. The excavation is named for a modern Greek village situated...

was destroyed, with archaeological remains becoming well preserved under the volcanic ash.