Greece is the most seismically active country in Europe, sitting where the African Plate pushes beneath the Aegean microplate along the Hellenic subduction zone. This collision, combined with the westward extrusion of Anatolia along the North Anatolian Fault, makes the Aegean one of the fastest-deforming regions on Earth, with frequent strong earthquakes across the mainland and islands.
The same subduction feeds the volcanic Aegean arc, whose best-known member is Santorini, site of the colossal Minoan eruption around 1600 BC that reshaped the island and may have influenced the decline of Bronze Age civilisations. In modern times, the 1953 Ionian earthquake devastated Kefalonia and Zakynthos, and the volcano of Nisyros and the still-restless Santorini caldera continue to be closely monitored.