The great Minoan eruption of Santorini. Santorini volcano eruption
Santorini is an island rich history. Researchers claim that people have inhabited this island since Neolithic times. Around 3200 BC Cretans lived on the island. Their influence became apparent during the excavations of Akrotiri - they found a village with an identical architecture of houses that they dug up in the Minoan palace in Crete.
At that time, due to its shape, the island was called Stronghyle or Strongili, which means "round" in Greek. But 1500 B.C. everything has changed. Peaceful life ancient world was broken by a monstrous explosion of a volcano, which was located in the very center of the island. Eventually most of The islands sank, forming the famous caldera (the largest in the world). The island is no longer round, and small islands that have formed around the perimeter are now called Santorini, Aspronisi and Thirassia.
In 1956 the excavations of Akrotiri began. A team of archaeologists led by Spyros Marinatos unearthed a well-preserved city that was completely buried under volcanic ash. The tidal wave from the eruption was so huge that it reached Crete (70 nautical miles, just a minute). Many scientists believe that the explosion caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization. And someone seriously thinks that it was there, in the unique caldera of Santorini, that Atlantis sank.
After the explosion, the Dorians settled the island and named it Thera, in honor of their king.
Christianity came to the island only in the 3rd century AD. An important monument of that period is the small elegant church of Panagia. In the same period, the Crusaders changed the name of the island to Santorini, building a small chapel of Agia Irene.
In the 18th century, the island began to actively develop. The industry began to grow. Santorini processed tomatoes, produced wine and textiles. At this time, life on the island flowed peacefully, apart from the occupation by German troops during the Second World War. All this time, the volcano continued to erupt and created the small islands of Pelea and Nea Kameni.
Tourism began to develop actively in Santorini in the late 1970s. Every year, 1.5 million tourists come here to enjoy the unique atmosphere of the island and the famous sunsets.
Locals still call the island Thira, so don't be surprised if you see this name on ferry schedules. Just remember that Thira = Santorini.
More about the volcano
It is known that the volcano on Santorini exploded more than once. After such explosions, magma filled the caldera and a new explosion occurred.
Caldera is big crater formed after the explosion of a volcano.
Each time the caldera deepened. After one of these explosions, magma slowly filled the old caldera, and it turned out round island stronghyle. Ultimately, the center of the island once again collapsed, forming the modern Santorini caldera, which is again slowly filled with cooling magma.
At the moment, the area of the caldera on Santorini is about 48 square meters. km, and the depth is from 300 to 600 meters. The water depth in the caldera is from 150 to 350 meters.
Those. in fact, Santorini is the volcano, perhaps the largest in the world and still active.
Most of the islands in the Aegean are the result of volcanic activity. One of these islands, which is part of the Cyclades archipelago, is Thira (Fira). Thira, together with the islands of Thirasia, Palea Kameni, Nea Kameni and Aspro, is part of a group of islands in the form of a ring called Santorini.
In ancient times, the island was called Strongila (Round) because of its shape, since the volcano at that time had not yet begun its destructive action. However, about 3600 years ago there was a terrible eruption that changed not only the island, but the entire history of the ancient world.
Having visited Santorini, we made an excursion to the active volcano, and we were convinced by its breath of sulfur that it was still alive.
There is an opinion that a person is a product of the activity of a volcano.
The air we breathe is the product of volcanic eruptions 3-4 billion years ago.
Every year, about 50 volcanic eruptions of various strengths occur on the planet. Ancient people considered this a manifestation of the wrath of the gods.
Volcanoes are like people: some slowly doze, others explode angrily, others calmly pour out their "bile". The Laws of Nature are the same for everything on the planet.
Each volcano is a time bomb that gives a signal in a matter of days, or even hours before the explosion.
One single volcanic explosion can change the course of world history.
Around 1600 B.C. in the Minoan era, a volcano erupted on the island of Thera. Thira was located on a volcanic island where four geological plates converge. For many thousands of years before the eruption, there was a single island here; after a series of eruptions, it broke up into several smaller ones.
It all started with a giant explosion. In an instant, the sky darkened, lightning flashed, earthquakes began, the entire sky was covered with black clouds. There was a "snowfall" from the ashes. Then the ejection of pumice began - volcanic foam - and in the end it covered the entire island with itself. But that was only the first phase. Then the pumice suddenly began to fly up and fall to the ground. She seemed to float above the surface.
The eruption of Thera destroyed all the cities on the island. At a speed of 150 km per hour and at a temperature of more than 600 degrees, the lava burns everything in its path. In 1967, under a layer of volcanic ash, archaeologist Spyridon Martinatos discovered the lost ancient Minoan city of Akrotiri.
Thera volcano is located 130 km north of Crete. A cloud of volcanic ash reached Crete in less than half an hour. Earthquakes started, it started to rain. Minoan palaces engulfed in flames.
From the explosion of the volcano, earthquakes occurred, which led to a tsunami.
After the explosion, the top of the volcano collapsed, and a caldera formed. The volcano threw a huge amount of magma into the air. As a result, a void appeared inside his vent. The slopes of the volcano could not stand it and collapsed inward under their own weight. Sea water rushed into the landslides. She fell right on the red-hot lava. Huge volumes of water instantly turned into steam, the pressure of which grew at a tremendous speed.
Santorini exploded like a steam boiler. From this explosion, vibrations of the earth's surface and its local subsidence occurred. But education was the worst. new wave tsunami, which surpassed the first in its size and power.
A huge wave, the height of which supposedly reached from 100 to 200 m, hit the northern coast of Crete. This wave finally destroyed the entire Minoan fleet, and the buildings on the island, and part of the population of Crete and the Cyclades. The Cretan-Minoan civilization suffered such damage that it could not recover from it in the future.
Excavations on the island of Crete have shown that the Minoan civilization existed after the volcanic eruption, since a large number of buildings of the Minoan culture are located above the layer of volcanic ash.
The volcano threw out a huge amount of pumice. And pumice is lighter than water. As a result, the entire eastern part mediterranean sea covered with pumice for many years. Navigation became impossible. The Minoan trading empire lost its main source of income.
The eruption of Thera sent European civilization down a different path.
Perhaps Tyra erased an entire continent. For example, the legendary Atlantis.
Under the caldera at a depth of three hundred meters under water and a layer of ash, perhaps, lies a dead city.
At 800 kilometers from Tyra, the eruption was observed in Egypt. It is even mentioned in the Bible. The eruption of the volcano and the tsunami are associated with such a biblical event as the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, and in particular, the famous passage of Moses across the sea, when the sea receded (low tide before the tsunami) and the Jews passed, and the army of the pharaoh was destroyed by the oncoming huge wave.
From ancient Strongyla, only the currently visible crescent with a sheer cliff of more than 300 m in the western part (caldera) and gently sloping beaches in the eastern part remained.
When we sailed up to the volcano - the island of Nea-kameya - I was surprised as if basalt blocks had grown out of the water. In contact with water, lava solidifies, forming bizarre shapes.
The very appearance of the island means that the volcano is recovering. This island will grow for several thousand more years, and then, apparently, an eruption will occur again. Such is the nature of this volcano. It explodes once every twenty thousand years.
Hot springs can be observed along the entire coastline of the island, in which tourists are offered to swim. Which is what I did. The water in the springs is not hot, but brown from dissolved sulfur and iron.
Nea Kameni is the very volcano that destroyed the Minoan civilization. The crater is easy to spot by the smell of sulfur and the wisps of hydrogen sulfide seeping through the ground.
Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni are small islands. The volcano itself is located deep under water. He was active in January 1950. How much longer he will sleep is unknown. neighboring island Palea Kameni appeared 1200 years after Nea Kameni, when another volcanic eruption took place.
From January 26, 1866 to October 15, 1870, as a result of intense volcanic activity, the island of Nea Kameni tripled in size. One person died. In addition, about 50 houses and two small chapels (Orthodox and Catholic) sank during that Santorini eruption.
To observe the eruption, the Academy of Paris sent a group of scientists to Santorini, among whom was the famous volcanologist Ferdinand Fouquet, who made a significant contribution to the study of Santorini's volcanoes.
Among the foreigners who came to the island was the writer Jules Verne. What he saw and heard during the trip became the basis for his novel "The Mysterious Island", in which Jules Verne plausibly described the volcanic eruption. The writer will also mention the island of Santorini and its volcano in his book “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.
The famous underwater explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau almost managed to prove that the remains of the Minoan civilization found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea are precisely the remains of lost Atlantis. He also includes the Santorini group of islands.
I am sure that the myth of Atlantis has a basis real basis, distorted by time and the retelling of historians. If indeed there were unknown sources of energy in Atlantis (for example, geothermal), then it is easy to imagine how the unwise use of these sources could lead to a volcanic eruption.
I looked and thought: what makes people live on a volcano?
Many houses are stuck to the rock like swallows' nests, others are carved into the caldera itself.
In the event of a volcano awakening, 10 hours are given to evacuate the population. But if the volcano wakes up, it will simply shake off these "swallow's nests" and leave no one alive, just like three and a half thousand years ago.
Why do people live here, risking their lives every day?
When I was in Naples and wandered among the excavations of Pompeii, I glanced warily at Vesuvius.
Iceland's Eyjafjallaiskudl volcano, which caused so much noise last year, is no match for the US volcano St. Helens, which exploded in 1980, killing 57 people.
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But there is a supervolcano in America - yellowstone caldera- which, if it explodes (and it will definitely explode sometime), it can destroy the United States and Canada. How this will happen is picturesquely shown in the film "2012".
We all live like on a volcano. Every day there are some disasters. You don't know what could happen at any moment. We are ready, it seems, already for any cataclysms.
A huge number of people die on the roads every day.
It remains to appreciate every day, and thank you for the fact that we are still alive.
Live every day like it's your last!
Everything is given to a person for happiness, but people have problems and troubles because they cannot properly dispose of what they have.
We must get rid of self-deception! People have turned the planet into one big powder magazine.
It's time to see the reality with your own eyes: human activity comes into conflict with the interests of Nature. There is an ongoing struggle for existence, in which a person destroys not only his own kind, but also environment. People have lost their moral foundations and are guided solely by animal egoism.
In nature and in the world, everything is in balance, thanks to which the world exists. And now this balance is disturbed due to man-made activities of mankind. As a result, natural disasters occur all over the world as a response to human intervention in nature.
We must not oppose ourselves to nature, but adapt to it!
Archaeologists have not yet found confirmation of the theory of the struggle of species for existence. But we see symbiosis (mutual adaptation) everywhere. All human behavior can be explained by the desire to most comfortably adapt to the environment.
Volcanoes are already billions of years old, and humanity is only a few thousand. What would a volcano say to a person?
"Oh man, man. You imagine yourself the king of nature, and look down on everyone. But what are you doing without your cars? The fragile structure of a human being was broken by the mind weighed down by its own vanity. intoxicated technical advances, you have left the natural life, thereby having lost the Meaning that was originally laid down in you. Having rejected the Absolute in search of something higher, humanity was afraid of its own omnipotence, seeing what evil the achievements of the mind can bring. What can you be proud of, man? The fact that you fuck up everything around and kill without any need? Unless the Man - it sounds proudly?!
You have become prisoners of the increasing speed of your machines and are rushing about, unable to keep up with them. But they won't save you from problems. Moreover, the mechanisms generated by you will destroy your entire civilization. A machine is a machine, it requires a strict and precise attitude towards itself. And a person treats her like a human: beats, vents anger, violates the rules of operation. And the machines avenge this by killing their masters.
You rush into distant worlds, not wanting to notice what is happening under the nose; you created a civilization of machines and became their hostage; you are a slave of electricity and heat, a slave of life support systems and transport; you are bound hand and foot by means of communication and communication, and you cannot take a step without a car. But machines have not made your life easier, they have only made it harder.
It seems to you that freedom increases along with the ability to plan the development of events. But the abundance of information has not made life easier and more predictable. On the contrary, freedom is unpredictability. After all, no one can ever know for sure what will happen in the next moment. And that's why making plans is a stupid thing to do. To obey the natural course of events is the highest wisdom.
Every attempt to go against nature, to adapt nature to your insane needs, turns against you. And for what? Only in order to have a drier dwelling, and better food. But even this is not enough for you, you foolish creature. With your desire for luxury, you will destroy nature, and with it, yourself. But it’s easier for you to take a mortal risk and even die than to abandon the role of ruler you have taken on.
Your civilization imposes unnatural forms of existence, which is why a person feels unhappy everywhere and always. Watches and money are the two most harmful toys invented by mankind. What could be more absurd than the slogan “time is money”. This is as stupid as it is revealing for those who try to measure their lives by the amount of money they earn. Even that which has no price, you are trying to appreciate. Poor people!”
(from my novel "Alien Strange Incomprehensible Extraordinary Stranger" on the site New Russian Literature
P.S. Read my articles with videos: “Why Atlantis died”, “Paradise is Crete”, “Knossos Palace of the Minotaur”, “Saint Irina Santorini”, “On the legendary Atlantis”, “Visiting a volcano”, “Spinalonga: hell in paradise” , "Sunset on Santorini", "St. Agios Nicholas", "Thira - bird home”, “Heraklion in Crete”, “Elounda”, “Dream of Santorini” and others.
© Nikolay Kofyrin - New Russian Literature - http://www.nikolaykofyrin.ru
My video "Volcano in Santorini" can be viewed here:
http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/1287574/post146037440/play
The study of deep-sea deposits of the eastern Mediterranean Sea made it possible to restore the conditions of a grandiose volcanic catastrophe.
In columns taken from the bottom Aegean Sea, found two layers of volcanic sediments located at levels from 80 to 170 centimeters below the upper limit of bottom sediments. Together with small particles to a height of up to 50 km. volcanic bombs of various sizes and pumice are flying. Such material from volcanic ejecta is called tephra.
The study of the extracted soil columns made it possible to reliably distinguish between the upper and lower tephra, build maps of the areal distribution of these two volcanic layers, and determine their thickness. The configuration of the area where volcanic deposits were found and the nature of the thickness distribution of the two ash layers leave no doubt that this ash was formed as a result of the eruptions of the Santorini volcano.
The greatest thickness of the lower ash layer, reaching 22 cm, was found southeast of Santorini. The ash spread up to 400 kilometers north of Santorini and up to 1,000 kilometers west, almost as far as Sicily. All the islands in the Aegean, including Crete, within a radius of 200 km from Santorini, were covered with a layer of aeolian ash several centimeters thick.
The upper horizon of volcanic sediments (upper tephra) reaches its greatest thickness also near Santorini. 130 km southeast of the volcano, its thickness exceeds two or more meters. The ash that makes up this horizon reached the shores of Africa, Asia Minor and Balkan Peninsula to be deposited there in a layer exceeding 1 mm. The maximum distance over which the ash of the upper tephra was transported was no more than 700 km. In places of its greatest accumulation, it was found that the upper tephra ash layer consists of three coarse-grained horizons and three fine-grained ones with sharp contacts between them. This indicates that the upper ash layer was formed as a result of three consecutive eruptions of Santorin, of which the first was the strongest and most abundant.
Based on this, it was concluded that Santorini twice took the form of the round island of Strongili and twice fell apart. The first time this happened in the late Pleistocene, 25 thousand years ago, when the lower layer of tephra was deposited on the seabed, and the second time, in the Minoan era, ca. 3400 years ago, when the top layer of tephra was deposited.
Further distribution of volcanic sediments depends primarily on the direction and speed of high-altitude winds. After analyzing the air currents in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, scientists came to the conclusion that the distribution of the material of the lower tephra indicates its transfer by high-speed winds, which indicates a volcanic eruption in winter.
Upper tephra was deposited under conditions of lower wind speeds. This is consistent with the meteorological pattern of summer northwestern trade winds with relatively low speeds. The fact that the eruption occurred in the summer, before harvesting, is confirmed by the fact that in the jugs found during archaeological excavations in Santorini, there were almost no food supplies left.
The shape of the tephra fallout area allows us to conclude that the cloud that covered the whole of Crete, some areas of the Peloponnese and Asia Minor, was transported in the southwest direction. A meter layer of tephra of that time was found on the island of Rhodes. A cloud of volcanic gases, vapors and dust must have covered an area much larger than that on which the tephra fell.
The lower layer of tephra dates back to about 25,000 years ago. The date was determined on the basis of the age of shells of microorganisms found in the soil cores.
The upper ash horizon turned out to be much younger. Although there is a rather large scatter of numbers, it is still certain that the upper tephra was formed less than 5 thousand years ago. The formation of the upper ash horizon was caused by the Santorini eruption and is dated, quite reliably, by determining the absolute age from the carbon isotope in a piece of wood found under 30 meters of ash. Radiocarbon analysis carried out showed that this piece was separated from the tree between 1510 and 1310 BC. e. Around this time, a catastrophic volcanic eruption occurred. And then central part Strongile, again went into the depths of the sea, forming a lagoon-caldera.
The ash from the Santorini caldera and from the upper layer of the bottom sediments of the Eastern Mediterranean are exactly the same.
The catastrophic volcanic eruptions that took place on the islands of Indonesia can give an idea of the events that took place 35 centuries ago in the Aegean Sea. Born in 1812 on the island of Sumbawa new volcano, which received the name Tambora. For three years of its activity, it grew to a height of four kilometers, and on April 15, 1815 there was a terrible explosion that shortened the volcano from 4000 to 2851 meters. Clouds of ash covered the sky over an area with a radius of up to 500 kilometers: there was total darkness here for three days. A caldera 700 meters deep and six and a half kilometers in diameter formed at the site of the explosion.
The eruption of Krakatau occurred in August 1883 in the Sunda Strait. On August 26, residents of the island of Java, located at a distance of 160 km from Krakatoa, heard a noise like thunder. At 14 o'clock. a black cloud about 27 km high rose over Krakatoa. At 17 o'clock. the first tsunami happened. Until noon on August 27, several more tsunamis arose. Explosions continued throughout the night, but the most powerful of them occurred on 27 August. Gases, vapors, debris, sand and dust rose to a height of 80 km and dispersed over an area of over 827,000 km, and the sound of explosions was heard in Australia and off the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa.
Hot ash and debris covered many hundreds of square kilometers. The wave caused by the explosion went around the entire globe. Its speed reached 566 kilometers per hour, and the height was 35 meters.
Explosions occurred throughout the autumn of 1883, and only on February 20 of the following year did the last eruption occur. During the eruptions, at least 18 km were ejected rocks, of which two-thirds fell on an area with a radius of 15 km from the explosion site. The sea north of Krakatau became shallow and became unnavigable for big ships. As a result of these explosions, only the southern half of the cone was preserved, and in place of the rest of the island, a depression about 7 km in diameter was formed in the ocean.
The crater formed after the explosion of Santorin is much larger and deeper than the craters resulting from the explosion of Krakatoa. This means that the eruption of Santorini-Strongyle was even more powerful. During it, 70 cubic kilometers of rocks were thrown out, that is, three to four times more than during the Krakatoa explosion.
Before the catastrophe that formed the upper tephra, Santorin was a complex group of volcanic cones fused with each other, located mainly along its periphery. first arose large island Thira with a volcanic cone height of about 1600m. Gradually big Island merged with small islands located to the south.
After the disaster, a collapse caldera arose and most of the island collapsed into the water. It is possible that the inner part of the Santorini archipelago, even before the catastrophe, was partly a lagoon or a flat territory formed due to the demolition of volcanic products from the volcanic mountain range that framed the island. This point of view is supported by the analysis of volcanic eruptions that immediately preceded the catastrophe. Geological observations indicate that the first manifestations of volcanism did not portend catastrophes. Geologists divide pumice emissions accumulated during the eruption into three layers. The lower, “pink” pumice erupted at a lower temperature. During the period of its formation, one or several vents operated in the northern part of the island. middle group layers of pumice, found in the south and east of Tyra, is characterized by pronounced irregular bedding. This indicates a series of weak to moderate explosive eruptions separated by quiet intervals. The absence of fragments of ancient lavas indicates the activity of the former vents. The release of huge masses of gas-rich magma inevitably caused the collapse of the roof of the underground reservoir. This process could have begun even during the eruptions, but it manifested itself most of all shortly after they ended.
The oldest population of Santorini, which appeared here ca. 3000 BC e., was pre-Greek. Presence of Influence Minoan Crete was found during excavations at Akrotiri, when a whole village of two or three-story houses decorated with frescoes reminiscent of wall paintings of Minoan palaces was dug out from under a 40-meter layer of volcanic ash.
During excavations in the harbor of Akrotiri, a city destroyed by an earthquake was discovered. According to scientists, its area was one and a half square kilometers. Nearby under a layer of ash was discovered residential building, vessels from the Minoan period, fragments of a loom and large cinder blocks. Frescoes were discovered under a multi-meter layer of ash. They showed plants, birds, the landscape of the island before the eruption, gracefully stepping antelopes, a leaning palm tree, boys boxing in special gloves, a procession of women with sacred gifts, and an ape-like creature painted blue. Found on Tyre, the city is not inferior in size and splendor to Knossos in the center of Crete. The Santorini volcanic massif was surprisingly well adapted to create an impregnable military fortress there, therefore it was most expedient to keep a navy on Tire in case of an attack by enemies and in order to extend its power to the remote territories of the Mediterranean.
Akrotiri turned out to be empty, it was possible to find out that the evacuation of people took place long before the eruption - on the walls of abandoned houses, before they were covered with ashes, grass had time to grow. Volcanic explosion destroyed northern part cities, covered the south with a multi-meter layer of ash, and individual quarters went under water, to the bottom of the lagoon. Their remains were found at a depth of 20 meters.
F. Fouquet once discovered that despite the enormous force of the eruption and the proximity of the caldera, the Minoan buildings on the island of Tyra were preserved under a layer of tephra in relatively good condition. On this basis, he concluded that the eruption was not preceded by any strong earthquakes, and that it began with a sudden powerful ejection of ash and pumice that covered the Minoan settlements. Therefore, by the time of the collapse of the island, part of the settlements around the future caldera had already been buried by a thick layer of tephra.
In 1939, the archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos, following an excavation of a Minoan villa at Amnisos on the north coast of Crete, concluded that the Minoan civilization had been destroyed by an eruption on the nearby volcanic island of Santorini. Layers of ash and volcanic pumice were found in Amnisos, Marinatos suggested that the walls of the villa collapsed from the impact of a huge tidal wave caused by a volcanic eruption. That the eruption of Thera occurred at the time bronze age, was beyond doubt: in the wreckage volcanic origin pottery from the Minoan period has already been discovered. In 1967, under a thick layer of volcanic ash and tephra, streets lined with Minoan houses opened up. In some houses, beautiful colored frescoes and untouched ceramics were found. In the late 1980s, it became apparent that the eruption occurred about 150 years before the destruction of Knossos and the great Minoan palaces.
According to archaeological data, all the Cretan palaces of the Minoan era in the northern and eastern shores the islands were destroyed simultaneously at the end of the 15th century. BC. The coastal settlements of Crete were suddenly abandoned, the population taking refuge in impregnable mountain shelters in the center of the island. After this event, some palaces were subsequently reoccupied, but only partially; others were abandoned forever. During the excavations of the palaces of Crete, archaeologists found pieces of pumice, as well as caked pieces of other volcanic rocks mixed with sulfur.
Until recently, there was fairly broad support for the hypothesis that the destruction of all cities and large settlements in Crete were caused by tsunamis, earthquakes and air shock waves generated by the explosion of Santorini. This was one of the main reasons that undermined the power of the state to such an extent that it became an easy prey for its neighbors.
At present, the hypothesis is being refuted with the same enthusiasm with which it was previously supported. Opponents argue that a single natural disaster could not lead to the disappearance of an entire civilization.
Volcanic emissions cover the island to a height of 30-35 meters. And in some places reach hundreds of meters. The wind dispersed tens of millions of tons of ash and pumice throughout the Aegean Sea and even brought it into North Africa, Asia Minor and Macedonia. Anafi Psara, Kos, Milos, Naxos and other islands of the Cyclades were covered with a layer of ash more than a dozen centimeters thick. The same layer of ash fell on Crete, in its central and eastern parts, the most densely populated areas of the island. This is quite enough to seriously damage fruit trees, destroy crops and grasses on pastures and, thereby, cause mass death of livestock. Under the threat of starvation, the surviving population of Crete was forced to leave the fertile valleys of the central and eastern parts of the island and go to the regions of western Crete.
During the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland in 1783. volcanic ash that covered the entire country caused mass starvation of herbivores. A mixture of volcanic gases and ash formed a bluish smog that enveloped Iceland, causing great damage to grain and fodder crops and resulting in starvation and starvation. The consequence of all this was the death of half the cows, three-quarters of the sheep and horses, and the population of Iceland was reduced by a fifth.
During the eruption of Mount Katmai in Alaska in June 1912. pyroclasts that fell in the vicinity of the city of Kodiak, 160 km southeast of the eruption, formed a layer 25 cm thick and completely drowned out small vegetation. All streams and wells here were covered with ashes. The cattle had to be taken out, and it was possible to return it only after 2 years, when the pastures revived.
An explosion in Santorini caused a powerful tremor. But if at the epicenter the magnitude of the earthquake exceeded 10 points, in Crete it decreased to 8 points. However, great damage to Crete was caused not only by the tsunami and volcanic ash, but also by the blast wave that came to the island after the earthquake that followed the explosion of Strongile.
During the eruption of Krakatoa, the roar of the explosion was heard on an area equal to 1/13 the globe. Air shock waves shattered glass in houses 150 km away, and in some cases houses were damaged at a distance of 800 km from Krakatau. This means that in the Cyclades and Crete, located 100-150 km from Santorin, the blast wave should have caused significant damage. It is possible that the destructive action air wave there were even more than earthquakes. Disasters also hit neighboring lands. First of all, this applies to Egypt.
The Minoan eruption was not the last page in the history of Santorini. The volcano was silent for 1200 years.
In 197 B.C. e. in the lagoon of Santorini appeared a small island formed by lava. The Roman philosopher and naturalist Seneca, in his work “Questions of Natural Science”, speaking of the forces that shape the face of the planet, included among them the “pressure of air”, which “can sweep the earth over a large area, erect new mountains, create among the sea never before seen islands. And Santorin cited as an example: “Who will doubt that Teru, Therazia and this new island that appeared in the Aegean Sea before our eyes, gave birth to air?
In 46 a.d. e. another volcanic island was born. At 60 a new eruption merged the islands together. Palia Kameni was the first island to form after the Minoan eruption.
Masudi reported that in 535. in the Nile Delta there was a strong earthquake, the earth sank, and the sea rushed to the land. At the same time, there was a significant change in the coast of Crete, the islands surrounding it and the underwater relief of the Aegean Sea.
In 726, another eruption at the bottom of the lagoon increased the area, and then the volcano subsided. Several explosions scattered volcanic material for several kilometers around. The viscous magma that later filled the crater appeared as a black tongue of lava on the northeast coast of Palea Cameri. The chronicler Theophanes recorded the eruption of 726: “In the summer of this very year, from the depths of the sea between the islands of Tyra and Thirassia, heat began to bubble from the fiery furnace. It bubbled for several days, and increased all the time, and soon became a pillar of fire, and smoke became like fire, and from the thickness of this continuous fiery curtain huge pumice stones flew throughout Asia and the island of Lesbos and Abydos and to all parts of Macedonia, which was beyond the sea.
In 1452, he woke up again, increasing the area. The destruction of Palia Kameni probably happened between 1457 and 1458. Last time this volcano showed its activity in 1508, completing the formation of the island of Palea Kameni.
Underwater eruptions that lasted three years, from 1570 to 1573, about two and a half kilometers northeast of Palea Kameni, gave rise to the island of Micra Kameni.
September 14, 1650 began a powerful eruption underwater volcano on the northeast side of the island of Thira. It was accompanied by earthquakes that did not stop day or night.
An unusually strong volcanic process took place in the center of the ring in 1707; it did not stop for five years. In 1707, two volcanic cones appeared, named Aspronisi and Macronesi. Then, within five years, they united and Nea Kameni arose. The eruptions from 1701 to 1711 were very interesting from a geological point of view, because it was one of those rare cases when a volcano could be observed appearing in the sea. May 21, 1711, three days after strong eruption, one could observe the appearance of a white island. It continued to grow, and a few days later the people of Santorini discovered black lava, pumice and marine life who still lived on it. The island grew slowly, reaching a width of 600 meters and a height of up to 80 meters. On the 5th of June a fire was seen, after which a new black island appeared in the north. On September 12th, the black island became so big that it merged with the white one. Nea Kameni was 910 meters long in the south, 1650 in the west and 1440 in the east. The height of the island reached 106 meters.
The Jesuit Gori observed the 1707-1711 eruptions from Skaros Castle. "And now, between this little island and Great Stoney, on May 23rd, 1707, in the middle of the day, the New Island, of which I will now speak, first appeared on the surface of the earth. Be that as it may, the fishermen discovered the island early in the morning, but unable to understand what it is, some mistook it for a sunken ship, shipwrecked and drifting on the sea. As soon as the fishermen realized that this was a new island, they were frightened and quickly rushed ashore, spreading rumors throughout the island, which they readily believed, since all the inhabitants knew, and some even saw, what happened in 1650.
1712 "At that time white island, which seemed taller than Lesser Kameneni and could be seen from the first floor of Skaros Castle, now began to sink and sink so that it was already difficult to see it from the second floor.
Volcanic activity in the lagoon resumed in 1866, when eruptions began in the Volcano Bay on the banks of Nea Kameni. The area of Nea Kameni almost quadrupled as a result of the 1866-1870 eruption. In 1925-1926 and 1928, new underwater eruption further increased the area of Nea Kameni; the eruption of 1939-1941 contributed to the growth of the island. In 1945, the volcano created the new Daphne Island. This island grew rapidly and connected Mikra-Kameni and Nea-Kameni. Last eruption in Santorini, which occurred in 1950-1956, once again increased the size of Nea Kameni.
The strongest (Minoan) eruption of Santorini was not known either in the classical era or in the Middle Ages. Only the study of the geological structure of the island of Thira, which began at the end of the 19th century, and oceanological research in Eastern Mediterranean allowed to establish this grandiose geological phenomenon.
The eruptions of Santorini, which took place in the Middle Ages, were described in detail by the abbot Pegu in 1842. He was the first explorer to understand that the space between the islands of Thira, Thirasia and Aspronisi from the Santorini group is a giant caldera flooded by the sea, formed as a result of the collapse of a single volcanic island that once existed.
According to the Greek philosopher Plato, there once existed on our planet beautiful island Atlantis, inhabited by talented people of high culture. Many scientists still consider Plato's stories just a beautiful myth, but some geological and archaeological research indicate that the island really existed, and the cause of its death was the eruption of the Santorini volcano, located on the island of Thira in the Aegean Sea.
Before the eruption of Santorini
Together with several small islands, Thira is part of the Santorini group of islands belonging to the Cyclades archipelago in the southern Aegean Sea. The island group in the form of a ring is located at the junction of the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, due to which it has a high volcanic activity. According to archaeological data, already in the XIII century BC, Santorini was inhabited by numerous civilizations, including the famous Minoan, famous for its architecture, painting and high economic development.
Archaeological excavations near the city of Akrotiri in the south of the island of Thira show that once there was a large and dynamic settlement in this place, engaged in trade with the countries of the Mediterranean Sea. Today, the remnants of this once prosperous community are buried under a thick blanket of pumice massive eruption during the Late Bronze Age. The exact date of the volcanic event remains controversial, although most radiometric studies indicate that the volcano erupted between 1615 and 1645 BC.
Plinian volcanic eruption of Santorini
Over the past million years, Santorini has experienced at least 12 major eruptions. The last of these, which destroyed the Minoan civilization and, possibly, Atlantis, occurred according to the Plinian type and received the VEI-7 index on an 8-point scale of explosiveness. The grandeur of this explosion was surpassed only by seven terrestrial eruptions that have occurred over the past four millennia, including.
Before the disaster, Santorini was a large round island with an estuary filled with sea water. At the end of the Bronze Age, its central highlands collapsed as a result of an eruption, and a large caldera formed in their place. The island was divided into three parts, which today are the islands of Thira, Thirassia and Aspronisi.
The collapse of the caldera is associated with intense seismic activity, massive pyroclastic flows and a tsunami that washed away all coastal settlements. During the eruption, the Santorini volcano completely devastated its insides, after which its cone, unable to withstand its own weight, collapsed into an empty magma reservoir, where sea waters. The resulting giant wave, about 18 meters high, swept through the Cyclades archipelago and reached the northern coast of Crete. The tsunami destroyed all the settlements on the islands of the Aegean Sea, and also affected the shores of Egypt and other Mediterranean countries, suspending the development of mankind for a long thousand years.
Modern history of Santorini
After the eruption of Santorini, many other eruptive events took place in the center of the resulting caldera. Some of them affected the archipelago in the 19th and 20th centuries. In particular, the last major eruption happened in 1950. Today, Santorini shows constant seismic activity, and some of its islands still have fumaroles and hydrothermal vents. Scientists are sure that sooner or later a new eruption will occur here. Most likely, his strength will be from small to moderate. However, volcanoes such as Santorini are unpredictable, so the likelihood powerful eruption, similar to that which destroyed the Minoan civilization, still remains very high.
Santorini eruption in 1950
Take the ferry to beautiful Greek islands Santorini and you will see a truly unique landscape created by the cataclysm of the late Bronze Age. In the north and south your ship will leave shining blue waters Aegean Sea and will enter the natural harbor, which is surrounded by majestic rocks. The ferry will pass between big island Santorini and smaller - Thirassia, and right in front of you you will see small island in the center of the natural harbor - Nea Kameni. It looks like a hillock surrounded by mountains.
Being on Nea Kameni, among hot springs and sulfuric vents, you will be able to understand natural history and the formation of this island. Harbors, rocks, elegant white houses with blue roofs - they are all part of a huge volcano.
Did you know that in the middle of the second millennium BC, the islands of Santorini literally exploded? It was one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history. Over the past 800 years, only the Tambora volcano in Indonesia has erupted with such force. He is responsible for the global "year without summer" in 1816.
The eruption resulted in a devastating tsunami across the eastern Mediterranean that hit the Minoans living in Crete. At that time, the Minoans were one of the most advanced civilizations in the world.
How could a caldera appear
Volcano Santorini is a caldera. This is a type of volcano that erupts with such force that its central part collapses, forming a huge crater. The appearance of this crater is of most interest to the scientist Paraskevi Nomikou and his colleagues. Scientists have published maps of the seabed high resolution and supplemented them with seismic evidence. They say that the rock of the seabed is made from the caldera. This allows us to make assumptions about how the volcano collapsed, filled with water and, possibly, caused a tsunami.
Before the eruption, the modern caldera did not exist. Instead, there was a much smaller caldera left over from an older eruption. It formed lagoons in the north of a solitary island. Close to modern city There was a Minoan settlement in Akrotiri - a bustling city with three-story buildings, narrow streets and courtyards. He was quite different from palace complexes found in Crete. Prehistoric Akrotiri may have been home to hundreds or thousands of people and was probably an important trading port for the eastern Mediterranean.
A warning to the Minoans
The first eruption sent a huge plume of ash high into the sky, which descended back onto settlements and farmland. This terrible but not catastrophic phase of the eruption was an early warning to the locals and forced them to leave the island. Archaeologists have not been able to find any bodies, suggesting that the inhabitants probably fled.
As the volcano continued to throw ash into the air, it accumulated on the island. Imagine a heavy downpour of ash and dust that won't stop. But when the ash column reached its maximum height, it entered the stratosphere and began drifting east. Ash from this eruption has been found in Turkey, the Aegean islands and Crete.
lava flows
The next stage of the eruption was pyroclastic flows - hot landslides of volcanic material that move faster than Formula 1 cars. They blocked the strait to the northwest and isolated the caldera from the Mediterranean.
The strength of the eruption continued to grow, and pyroclastic flows were already breaking out of several vents. The lava flows reached 60 meters in thickness (about 14 double-decker buses high) and engulfed the Minoan settlement at Akrotiri, creating Bronze Age Pompeii and a kind of window into ancient civilization 1600s BC.
Devastating tsunami
It was at this stage, as scientists suggest, that the tsunami began to form. Nine meters high waves tore apart the northern part of Crete (which is 120 km away from the volcano), leaving devastation and debris in its wake. The tsunami may have reached western Turkey and even Israel.
Shaping the modern picture
Eventually, the sea calmed down, the eruption ended, and the modern caldera began to form. Seashore erosion and catastrophic landslide opened northwest strait, and water from the surrounding Mediterranean filled the caldera within days. Further landslides formed the southwestern straits. At the end of the formation modern geography it took another several thousand years, as the active Nea Kameni volcano continued to gradually erupt above sea level.
How did the eruption affect the civilization of the Minoans
Although this eruption was catastrophic, terrifying, and possibly life-changing for a large number of people, the Minoans themselves did not die out. Although there were no more settlements on Santorini, the found pottery confirms that civilization in Crete existed for several generations. But for a society built on maritime trade, the loss of the port of Santorini, which had direct links to Cyprus, led to a weakening position among the trading powers of the eastern Mediterranean.
