Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 25, 2026

Kinematic History of a Salient-recess Junction Explored through a Combined Approach of Field Data and Analog Sandbox Modeling
Published on: August 5, 2016
Cascading magmatic unrest and aseismic faulting in the Aegean Sea enabled by elastic stress relay
John D Wilding1, Taiyi A Wang1, Yuan-Kai Liu1
1Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Abstract:
Magma reservoirs commonly exist in clusters and situate within complex fault networks, yet sequential triggering of unrest at multiple reservoirs and faults is rarely observed. We show that the 2025 earthquake swarm in the Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo complex of the Aegean Sea was driven by elastic stress transfer between two magma reservoirs, a 9-kilometer-long dike, and a 17-kilometer-long, southeast-dipping fault. Pressurization of the magma reservoir under Santorini triggered a dike intrusion originating from a separate magma reservoir under the Kolumbo volcano. The dike, in turn, triggered a moment magnitude ([Formula: see text]) 6.2 aseismic slip transient on a SW-NE trending branch of the Amorgos fault. Episodic bursts of upward-propagating seismicity within the geodetically constrained dike potentially indicate buoyancy-driven, segmented dike opening. We suggest that unrest in rift zones can propagate over spatial scales much larger than individual magma reservoirs and faults via sequential relay of elastic stress.
Related Concept Videos
Relation between Poisson's ratio, Modulus of Elasticity and Modulus of Rigidity
Plastic Behavior
Feedback Regulation of Calcium Concentration
Various transmembrane receptors, such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), elicit a response to extracellular signals by increasing cytosolic calcium. Activated GPCRs...
Residual Stresses
Castigliano's Theorem
Principal Stresses

