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To: blam; what's up
I've read that after Thera blew in 1628BC and sent tsunamis over Crete destroying the Minoan civilizations.
The idea of the tsunami was dreamed up decades ago. The 1628 BC date for the eruption was seized on due to some chronology problems in the Near East (ahem) and derived from proxy data from Greenland. The actual experts refuted that date by noting that the chemical signatures not only don't match Thera's. Others noted that there are a variety of other traces of eruptions much later than 1628 BC.

None of those eruption traces have been matched with Thera's. All of them are probably from Icelandic volcanoes.

The caldera at Thera is prehistoric (see the Dartmouth website on "Bronze Age Aegean", I think it's chapter 17). The island wasn't a big, unsullied circle that suddenly had its center blown out in historical times. The burial of the towns on the island doesn't even match the depth laid down by Vesuvius in 79 AD (not even close). Herodotus doesn't speak of any eruption or other disaster, but does discuss the island. The only historical reference to an eruption is from 200 BC, centuries after Herodotus (and after Plato, for those "into" the Thera-was-Atlantis equation).

13 posted on 07/18/2004 5:58:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
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To: SunkenCiv
I just saw an (new) hour long documentary last week about Thera and the tsunami that destroyed the civilization on Crete. I sat and waited (baited-breath) for their date. I almost clapped when they said it happened in 1645BC.

And, Professor Mike Baillie, in his excellent book Exodus To Arthur using tree-rings, makes a compelling case for a 1628BC date for the Thera explosion. On page 58 of that book he says:"In 1987, data regarding a new acid layer at 1645+/-20 BC, in the important Dye 3 ice core from Greenland, was published. Claus Hammer and his co-workers suggested that this new date might be Santorini..."

Also, I think the ancient Egyptian dates are highly suspect.

14 posted on 07/18/2004 6:36:48 PM PDT by blam
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To: SunkenCiv
"The only historical reference to an eruption is from 200 BC, centuries after Herodotus (and after Plato, for those "into" the Thera-was-Atlantis equation)."

I definately do not believe Thera/Santorini was the location of Atlantis. I'm presently looking towards SE Asia for Atlantis, 8-9,000 years ago.

15 posted on 07/18/2004 6:40:31 PM PDT by blam
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