From:	Robert Watkins robert.watkins@******.com
Subject:	Crater Lake
Date:	Thu, 29 Jul 1999 14:00:00 +1000

Slipspeed writes:
> 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.

The resultant tsunami also managed to lower the level of the Red Sea
sufficiently (and for a long enough time) that a bunch of Jewish refugees
leaving Egypt managed to get across. If you want an impression of the Theran
eruption as seen from a few thousand kilometers away, go and read Exodus.

--
.sig deleted to conserve electrons. robert.watkins@******.com