About 140 generations ago, a massive explosion shook the Aegean island of Thira (Santorini). It was probably audible as far away as modern Iraq or Southern France. The island, including its capital at Akrotiri - hitherto a bustling centre of Aegean trade and in close contact with the great Minoan palaces of Crete, but also with Egypt and the Near East - was buried under up to 50 metres of ash and rock.
Tsunamis devastated much of the Aegean, especially the densely settled northern coast of Crete. Ash rained down on distant areas like Turkey and Crete. A plume of smoke rose tens of kilometres into the air, blowing enormous amounts of dust into the stratosphere and thus affecting the global climate for months or years to come.
More than 2,500 years later, a middle-aged Danish professor stood halfway up the steep edge of the caldera, the crater that now defines the inside of the C-shaped island of Santorini. Awkwardly perched on a ladder placed on the rubble eroding from the cliffs, he was trying to peer into a smallish hole in the cliff face itself. He suspected that a piece of wood just visible in that hollow could help him answer a key question: When exactly did the island explode?
See the above page for the full story.
No comments:
Post a Comment