One of Greece's top seismologists is under investigation over an April Fool's joke warning that a huge "funnel" could open up under the popular tourist destination Santorini island. Akis Tselentis, the director of Greece's Geodynamic Institute and Tsunami Center, on Wednesday posted on Facebook a photo of himself in a mock mugshot pose, holding a sign that read "guilty of April Fool's joke". "We live in a country where humour is persecuted," he added. On Tuesday, a prosecutor ordered a preliminary investigation to determine whether Tselentis' April 1 posting qualified as spreading false news. "Things are not well regarding Santorini," Tselentis had said. "From January onwards we have a gradual disappearance of magma beneath the volcano," the April Fool's post said. Tselentis said there was a "major possibility" that magma would shift towards a fictional volcano, leaving a funnel vacuum that would "suck the waters of the Aegean". Santorini was completely reshaped by a volcanic eruption in the late 17th century BCE that wiped out a culturally advanced Minoan colony, and geothermal activity accompanied by seismic tremors remains high to this day. The last major eruption of the most...
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