Posted on 07/01/2008 7:01:42 AM PDT by cogitator
A beautiful island..been there a few times.
On another note: when National Geographic advertised Santorini to Muslims they photoshopped the crosses on the churches out.
Aside from the nice link about Ancient Volcanos the cogitator posted, Crater Lake has a six mile wide caldera, and Pinitubo has a 3 mile wide caldera. Do we know how wide the Thera crater is?
Other major eruptions not listed in the Ancient Volcanos link include: Sakara-Jima in Japan which left a 15 mile diameter caldera about 22,000 years ago. The current volcano of that name sits on one edge of the caldera bay. Two more major eruptions of Yellowstone, the most recent about 640,000 years ago, and perhaps coming due soon. There were also major eruptions of Vesuvius in prehistoric times leaving a caldera that the current mountain sits within.
Wow!
No Kidding Wow. That was our favorate stop on the cruise. Although the ride up the hill in a full size bus was a little unnerving...
There's all sorts of relatively recent volcanic activity in Oregon ... if memory serves, some of the massive lava flows in the Three Sisters area date from as recently as 10,000 years ago -- which I think is within the time when humans were in the area.
Quick searching without in-depth reading found a value of about 4 miles. I think the volume of the caldera might be more indicative than the width related to the size of the eruption that created it; both are dependent on the size of the actual mountain that collapsed.
Other big calderas: Yellowstone (obviously); Valles Caldera in New Mexico; Katmai Lake in Alaska; Lake Toba on Sumatra.
Based on the size of what would have been the outline of the original island before it was blown to shreds, and the size of the little stub islands now sitting in the basin.. you have to wonder how long that volcano was building up that island the first time before it finally went nuclear, and blew itself to bits.
fso301 ~ Now that you mention it, it does.
More like Reptilicus. Polar bears are too far north for Godzilla's range. (You do know it's Gojiru, don't you?)
So it kinda depends on what type of eruptions happen with in the caldera after the big blow. Crater Lake has pretty Wizard Island, too.
My idea of heaven. http://www.vrsantorini.com/
Associate us nukes (with our little itty bitty explosives) by comparing a volcano that blew up an entire island to “going nuclear...” 8<)
(Of course, there was that little hole we put in the Eniwetok reef back in the 50’s ...)
I was associating the Thera explosion with the Atlantis legends of an old civilization suddenly destroyed.
Our hotel in Io was fabulous: built into the island wall (volcanic rock): 
As we lay about, dined, and swam before it, I couldn't help but think about how that entire, gorgeous sea was once an entire island; it blew into the crescent remains you see in the satellite photos. Amazing.
We just had a one day stop, but had lunch at a winery, Checked out the monetary at the top of the mountain, and wandered around a couple towns. Mrs. Doomonyou Vetoed the donkey trip down to the Tender, so we took the Gondola. We'd love to go back and spend a week or so.
Nice post. The caldera of Santorini is prehistoric (10s of 1000s of years old, at least) and obviously other ancient craters represent much larger eruptions. :’)
We had a one day stop, too, but it was one of the most beautiful islands I have seen.
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