Hi young explorers! It's me, Sara, and believe it or not, I've been living and working aboard the JOIDES Resolution for almost four weeks now! That means I'm nearing the halfway point of this journey. Things have started to get really exciting because our expedition team has successfully retrieved many rock samples from the ocean floor now. We're "parked" in the third of six spots we plan to study on this expedition, and we've been working hard and using our drill 24 hours a day to collect as many samples as possible.
Santorini and the Greek islands all around it are special because they're hiding a big, underwater secret. There's a big system of volcanoes that extends under the sea in this region, connecting all of these islands. You might be wondering, how did volcanoes get under the sea?! This happened when two big chunks of the Earth's outer crust ran into one another underwater. One of the two chunks, or techtonic plates--from Africa--is actually sliding very, very slowly under the chunk/techtonic plate that much of Europe sits on. Along the line where the two chunks meet, right near Santorini, a string of volcanoes formed.
