Santorini, Greece - Norwegian Jade Arriving at Santorini

Norwegian Jade is a cruise ship for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), originally built as Pride of Hawaii for their NCL America division. She was christened in a ceremony at the San Pedro Pier in Los Angeles, California on 22 May 2006. The vessel is a Panamax form-factor ship that was built at Meyer Werft Shipyard, in Papenburg, Germany, and registers at just over 93,500 gross tons. Norwegian Jade is the second of NCL's four Jewel-class ships. She was preceded in 2005 by Norwegian Jewel, then followed in 2006 by Norwegian Pearl, and in 2007 by Norwegian Gem. Each ship has unique amenities, but has a similar exterior and interior design. Norwegian Jade has a similar exterior appearance to NCL's ships Norwegian Star, which entered service in 2001, and Norwegian Dawn, which entered service in 2002. The interior design and amenities, however, are significantly different and merit Norwegian Jade having a Jewel class designation. Santorini is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the largest island of a small circular archipelago, which bears the same name and is the remnant of a caldera. It forms the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of approximately 73 km2 (28 sq mi) and a 2011 census population of 15,550. The municipality of Santorini includes the inhabited islands of Santorini and Therasia, as well as the uninhabited islands of Nea Kameni, Palaia Kameni, Aspronisi and Christiana. The total land area is 90.623 km2 (34.990 sq mi). Santorini is part of the Thira regional unit. The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred about 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep. It is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc, though what remains today is chiefly a water-filled caldera. The volcanic arc is approximately 500 km (300 mi) long and 20 to 40 km (12 to 25 mi) wide. The region first became volcanically active around 3–4 million years ago,[citation needed] though volcanism on Thera began around 2 million years ago with the extrusion of dacitic lavas from vents around Akrotiri.