From:	Slipspeed atreloar@*********.com
Subject:	Crater Lake
Date:	Thu, 29 Jul 1999 13:44:13 +1000

> > That's funny. The old Greek island (called Thera in acient times) is
> > considered by some to be the inspiration for Atlantis. (Thera went the
> > way
> > of Pompeii BTW).
> >
> I know that the people of Pompeii were buried in ash, but I thought that
the
> residents of Thera were blown into the stratosphere (along with most of
the
> island) when the volcano/island exploded. Or am I thinking of some place
> else?

I just realised I left out Thera, which is what the post was all about.

Thera went up in 1627/28 B.C. It's VEI was 6. The magma chamber below
Thera is estimated to have been about 5 times the size of Krakatau's. The
volcanic eruption is seen as the primary reason for the fall of the Minoan
civilisation, which at the time occupied much of the Aegean Sea, which was a
hub of technology and marine commerce. Thera is today called Santorini. Its
steep cliffs are remnants of the volcano's rim, and the harbor is actually
its flooded interior. The eruption left the volcano hollow inside, and when
it collapsed some time later the waters of the Aegean rushed into the
cavity. Rebounding when they hit bottom, they caused a tsunami or tidal
wave. A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile in 1960 was still
thirty-five feet high when it reached Hawaii. It is estimated that the
Santorini tidal wave started at a comparable height and was still twenty-two
feet tall when it reached the shore of what is today Israel. This would have
destroyed the low-lying coastal settlements of Crete, where the Minoan
civilisation was based. Knossos (the Minoan capital) was shattered by a
succession of earthquakes that preceded or accompanied the eruption.
Santorini is now 4 small islands.

Some ancient Minoan writings suggest that there may have been a city at the
summit of Thera. Seen as a center of learning and other things, it is quite
possible that it is the basis for Atlantis. There was definitely a town at
it's base, called Akrotiri, which has been at least partially excavated.

Most importantly it was the eruption of the island itself that is the
biggest clue. No other event could have been massive enough to destroy an
entire island. Plato talks of the destruction of Atlantis happening 9000
years before his day. One theory suggests that the original legend that the
Egyptians read may have been written in a language that the Minoans used
called Linear A. In Linear A, the symbol used for 100 and the one used for
1000 differ only slightly. A simple mistake would have introduced an error
factor of 10, putting the destruction of Atlantis not 9000 years before
Plato, but 900 years before, which coincides with the eruption of Thera.

Slipspeed

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Scattered showers my ass... - Noah
Adam Treloar aka Guardian, Slipspeed
atreloar@*********.com
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1900/
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