From:	Slipspeed atreloar@*********.com
Subject:	Crater Lake
Date:	Thu, 29 Jul 1999 14:58:19 +1000

> > 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.

That comment started me on a hunt...

The Theran explosion caused...

-The destruction of the Minoans.
-The (possible) destruction of Atlantis.
-A few greeks on the southern tip of Greece decided at about that time that
they might prefer to live a little further west (after having your village
washed away by the volcano, I'd want to move too) and decided to settle on
the next penisula west, about halfway up the western side... Later to be
called Rome and be the greatest empire to date in Europe.
-An Egyptian pharoah was threatened with plagues of insects, rains of fire
etc... The insects probably detected the explosion and decided to head south
for the winter at great speed (I'd be running scared like a scared person
too, if I knew what it was about). The rain of fire was likely fallout from
the volcano. As you stated, the tsunami, it's forerunner as the ocean
retreated, or it's aftereffect allowed a few jews to escape across the Red
Sea.
-The Sea Peoples were uprooted at about this time and driven east by
northern invaders. Their civilisations were apparently weakened by
earthquakes and walls of high water. The Sea Peoples (which include the
Philistines) ended up sacking Troy, toppling the Hittite civilisation,
laying waste to Syro-Palestine and unsuccessfully attacking the Nile Delta.
Oh, and they allowed a few jews in their later years to settle at a place
called Canaan after driving them from the coast. Later called Israel.
-The Phoenician civilisation at about this time because of the weakening of
several older peoples on the eastern shore of the mediterranean.

Meddlesome volcano, eh? Definitely a pivotal point of ancient history.
Quite a lot of modern civilisation wouldn't be here if it hadn't erupted
when it did.

Slipspeed

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