3.600 years ago, the magmatic chamber of Santorini volcano went down, letting the sea meeting the magma, provoking a caldera eruption with 50kmcube of magma eructed and 100m high waves. It destroyed Minoan civilization in Crete and maybe provoked a tsunami in Red Sea. What else? Any other known consequences in Midle East Mediterranean shores? What if Deluge wasn't rain but flooding due to tsunamis? I think that waves generated by such a cataclysmic eruption, in such a closed sea like Mediterraneo may have decuplated their destructive power, almost by ricochet. (nasa photo)
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Minoan_eruption
I went there, the site is really impressive, even if nowadays saturated with tourists. I just don't understand how scientists could pretend it had no consequences on its surroundings. There must have some proofs on that shore, but not at the nowadays shore level, but at least 100m higher in the mountains. I'm interested with that research on Santorini's eruption consequences, even if I don't have enough time and energy for doing the research myself.
Dear Fred Romano,
I enclose here some relevant studies directly focusing on tsunami-generated eruptions of Santorini , and sorrunding volcanoes. I also kindly suggest look through the paper published by Browning et al. (2015) about volcanic eruption forecasting of this Santorini volcano at further time. Plese kindly see those papers at bellow:
All the best
1) https://www.nature.com/articles/srep15785
2) https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/92/11/845/202622
3) Article Tsunami Generated by the Late Bronze Age Eruption of Thera (...
4) Article Deep-sea tsunami deposits triggered by the explosion of Sant...
5) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377027303002841
Waoh, that's real stuff, very interesting. But I'm also interested by consequences of this catastrophic eruption on the Middlle East Mediterranean shore. Those articles speak of 2000m high waves, and I can easily believe it.
We were told that in Greek high school. They suspected that in the 1960's and since then the evidence has been gathered. But not a tsunami in the Red Sea (not connected), but the eastern Mediterranean. Some of the evidence found is pumice layers on the eastern shores of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, north shore of Crete, etc.
I think it was sub-estimated. Check those links, offered by Ozgur Karaoglu:
1) https://www.nature.com/articles/srep15785
2) https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/92/11/845/202622
Maybe a good idea to read "noah's flood" by Ryan and Pittman. The possible scientific explanation and also the consequences
The idea of a "deluge" at the time of the Santorini eruption stirs a new interest on the topic.
As far as mainland Greece is concerned there doesn't seem to be any effect, because the ancient Greek writers at the time do not mention any. Homer (probably active around 1,200 BC) does not know about the explosion of Thera. The dust cloud and tsunami effects probably targeted southern and southeastern Mediterranean areas.
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