Ancient Eruption May Have Hit Mediterranean Societies With Tsunamis - NYTimes.com

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In the Mediterranean, Killer Tsunamis From an Ancient Eruption

The massive eruption of the Thera volcano in the Aegean Sea more than 3,000 years ago produced killer waves that raced across hundreds of miles of the Eastern Mediterranean to inundate the area that is now Israel and probably other coastal sites, a team of scientists has found.

The team, writing in the October issue of Geology , said the new evidence suggested that giant tsunamis from the catastrophic eruption hit “coastal sites across the Eastern Mediterranean littoral.” Tsunamis are giant waves that can crash into shore, rearrange the seabed, inundate vast areas of land and carry terrestrial material out to sea.

The region at the time was home to rising civilizations in Crete, Cyprus, Egypt, Phoenicia and Turkey.

For decades, scholars have suggested that the giant eruption, just 70 miles from Crete, might have brought about the mysterious collapse of Minoan civilization at the peak of its glory. The remnants of Thera’s eruption ...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/science/03tsunami.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/science/03tsunami.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss