New submarine volcanic eruption off Turkey's coast suspected

Source: Volcano Discovery – 1/03/12, By T

A new submarine volcanic eruption might have recently started off Turkey’s west coast in the Marmaris Sea between the mainland and the Greek Island of Simi near Rhodes.

Scientists from Istanbul’s Technical University announced that they have found evidence of 2 active vents at about 200 m water depth along a north-south trending fissure of 2.5-3 km length. According to local newspapers, a rise in sea temperature was detected which suggests that lava might be erupting from the vents. According to Prof. Ahmet Ercan, it might take 1-3, or 20 years for the volcano to surface if at all.

The area is located at the eastern end of the volcanically active Hellenic Arc and volcanic activity here would not be a huge surprise, in fact. Possibly preceding the eruption, as magma was rising through the crust, the area was affected by a series of seismic swarms during the past months. According to the scientists, a previous submarine eruption already occurred here in 2009.

• Marmaris’te yanardağ bulundu (Haber Seninle) and similar articles in Turkish press