The end of Nexus monARC
Photos & text by Erik Sturkell
In November 2025, the final part of the EU-funded project Nexus monARC took place. The project ended on Santorini and Milos with an excursion. Bengt Liljebladh and I decided to take part in the excursion and therefore travelled to Greece. Bengt left on Wednesday the 5th while I was scheduled to travel on Friday the 7th of November. However, on the evening of the 6th there was drone activity over the Landvetter Airport outside Gothenburg, and everything closed. I was scheduled on an extremely early fight (6AM) with the Lufthansa airline flying in the aircraft the day before, but since the airport was closed, all flights were cancelled! I was therefore re-booked to Saturday the 8th.
The information on the different geological units originates from “Geological Map of the Santorini Islands, 1999, Geological Society, London, Memoirs Volume 19, https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.MEM.1999.019.01.1”.
I arrived on Santorini at 6PM and thereby just missing project leader Andreas Gondikas who returned to Athens with the same aircraft I arrived with. Bengt met me and another member of the project, Tim from the Kristineberg Research Station at the airport. We had a nice dinner at the restaurant Kokkalo. On Sunday, Bengt, and Tim checked out as they moved over to the boat (fig 1). We drove to the Vlyhada Marina on the south coast and met the rest of the group. On the boat there were already nine people when Bengt and Tim joined. That was the limit of people living onboard the boat, so I joined during the day as two of the crew members had other things to do on land. They would later meet us in the northern town Oia. This place is famous for the churches (fig 2) appearing on all tourist material from Santorini. The boat sailed under the “Sailing4Science” flag, and they had a successful activity on Saturday (fig 3) with more than hundred school kids. The activity was led by Martin Hassellöv, and we sailed out just before 11AM (fig 4). We rounded the western point of the main island where the Akrotire lighthouse stands (fig 5). We went into the caldera and sailed towards the north-northeast passing the two islands Palia (old) Kameni and (new) Nea Kameni to continue to Armeni Bay. All onboard (except me) were marine biologists, chemists and oceanographers and were sampling water at different levels and working with a CTD (stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth) making several dept profiles (fig 6). The water depth at the site varied from 150–300 m. When everyone else were busy with water sampling or monitoring, I was the only one to look at the rock walls. At some parts, a stack of lava flows appeared (fig 7). At other places, thick layers of tephra deposits (fig 8) and at a part of the rock wall several dykes had intruded but not to the surface (fig 9). After concluding the research work, we had a late lunch (fig 10) and we continued to the town Oia where the two members of the research team met us. They arrived at the same time as we docked so I could get the taxi. In Oia some of the most iconic churches of Santorini are located. Thus, I let the taxi wait while I went to document the churches with blue domes (fig 11). On the way back to Firá I stopped at another church with a blue dome and the three bells of Firá.
10th of November
After breakfast, I walked down the stairs from Firá to the old port. It is a 220 meters’ drop with 588 steps down and up! It was a good idea to make the hike early in the morning as the sun was partly behind the caldera wall. The walk down was fantastic, especially in the morning. It is also a popular tourist attraction. For a price of 10€ you can rent a donkey to ride on (fig 12) or a cable car (the same price as for the donkey), but I decided to make the hike up on my own legs! It was not too bad to hike; the advantage of living in Gothenburg with all its steep roads and pathways.
In the afternoon I went to the Ftelos brewery (fig 13). I got inspired the night before when I drank the “blue monkey” beer (fig 14). The brewery was about 20 minutes’ walk south from the hotel, and it was worth the effort. They had a fantastic double IPA. This was a good way to get some calorie compensation for the hike in the morning. On the way I encountered a road sign with great Greek accuracy (fig 15).
11th of November
On Tuesday I hiked northward to the town Imerovigli to explore the peninsula of Cape Skaros (fig 16). On this peninsula a castle was erected by the Venetians in the 13th-century. The first castle was built on the top, also referred to as the upper castle or the “Rocca”. With time the castle increased in size and the lower castle grew. The “Rocca” was seriously damaged in connection with a volcanic eruption in 1650. The inhabitants abandoned the “Rocca” and mowed into the lower castle. During the 18th-century a series of eruptions happened from 1707–1711 and in the 19th-century from 1866–70, which severely damaged the castle, which meant it was abandoned. The castle fell into total disrepair and the slumps of the steep slopes have desecrated the castle to a pile of rocks with few walls standing. On the west side of the peninsula the holy church of Panagia Theoskepasti is located (fig 17). The top is a butte (isolated flat-topped hill) and consists of the “Upper Scoriar 2” unit (fig 16). It is a red welded agglomerate, dated to 76–54 ka (fig 18). Below it a sequence of about 25 andesitic and basaltic lava flows lies (fig 19). The base of the peninsula comprises of dacitic lava dated to 67±9 ka.
12th of November
To cover many of the important tourist attractions on the island, I arranged for a car and a cap driver to take me around the island. We set off at 11 o’clock and first went to the Akrotiri lighthouse at the southwest tip of the island. From this place you got a perfect view over the large caldera wall (fig 20). Driving from the lighthouse we stopped along the road to look at the technique for wine growing on the island. They make a “basket” around the wine plant (fig 21) to protect it from wind and dust. The dust consists of rhyolitic pumice and acts as fine sandpaper. On the road again towards the red beach next to Cape Mavrorachidi (fig 22). This is an andesitic cinder cone dated to 451±27 ka. The sea erosion cuts into the western side of the cone making a red beach (fig). A kilometre to the east is the Akrotiri excavation museum. The town had three-stories budlings with well-dressed stones (fig 23). It had been buried completely by the pumice. The most intense pumice event came from a vent in the eastern part of the caldera, which hit the south coast the worst. The buildings in the excavated part of the Akrotiri were damaged in an earthquake before the explosive eruption leading to the pumice event. From the excavations it was concluded that the settlement experienced a precursor to the eruption. Damage of the budling indicates it had been subjected to a shear stress event (fig 24). It has been observed that the streets had been cleared of some rubble, which is interpreted that the inhabitants returned end cleaned out most of the things that could be transported away.
The trip continued along the south coast to the southern end of a north–south trending ridge with several old windmills on top. The ridge consists of most likely upper Triassic limestone and marbles. These are the oldest exposed rocks on Santorini. Also, these rocks make up Mount Profitis, the highest mountain on the island with an elevation of 552 metres. At the southern tip, you find the ancient cemetery Echedra. Monuments are carved into the carbonate rock (fig 25), including a snake carved into the mountain side. I took some time to pinpoint the snake. If you were to close, you needed to take a step back to find it (fig 26).
After the cemetery we drove to the village of Pyrgos and past it as we continued to the top of the island Mount Profitis, which is built up of Triassic limestone and marbles and overlaid on its western slopes by the 1600 BC pumice. From the top we had a fantastic view (fig 27). We stopped in the village Pyrgos, where I went up the winding passages to the top. Here you find the location of a church and the ruins of a Venetian castle which was once the island’s administrative centre.
From Pyrgos we took the serpentine road an almost 300-meter drop to the New Port at cape Athinios. The top is covered by pumices from the Plinian 1600 BC eruption. This rests on metapelites of Palaeocene-Eocene age. From this port almost all the passenger ships to and from Santorini frequence. From the dock you have a good view of Cape Alonaki with pumices and tuff from the first explosive cycle of the 1600 BC eruption. After the New port we passed Firá and went north along the old road to Oia. Passing the narrowest part of the island where the road follows a “neck” only 1 km distance from the caldera and the sea to the east. The road passes first white pumice from the 1600 BC eruption, with black scoria and red spatter (fig 28) from the Megalo Vouno and Kokkino Vouno cinder cones 54–76 ka.
After a long day, the driver Janis drove me back to the hotel.
At five o’clock I went to the “Cliffbar” (fig 29), had a beer, and enjoyed the sunset (fig 30). I stayed at the nice Winery Hotel (fig 31) located in Firá. According to the “Hellenic culture centre (https://hcc.edu.gr/churches-in-santorini/) there are 1256 churches on Santorini. Most of the churches are private and do not give a regular service. During a visit on Santorini a lot of churches are photographed. This trip was no exception. As you can see in the figures, a collection of churches is displayed – another example of the 1256 churches is seen here (fig 32).
