When did a massive volcano blow this island to bits and rock the ancient world?
By Lizzie WadeAug. 15, 2018 , 2:00 PM
Hundreds of years before the Trojan War, the volcanic island of Thera in the Aegean Sea blew its top in an explosion that rocked the ancient world. Sixty times greater than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, the blast completely buried the Theran town of Akrotiri and sent 12-meter-high tsunamis hurtling toward the heart of the Minoan civilization on Crete, 110 kilometers to the south. Some authors have even speculated that the Atlantis myth may stem from a cultural memory of the cataclysm.
But when exactly did it happen? The eruption spread ash across the eastern Mediterranean, so a precise date could pin down the chronologies of ancient cultures including the Greeks, Minoans, and Egyptians. Archaeologists and radiocarbon daters have battled fiercely over the timing. By correlating Egyptian records and pottery, archaeologists put the eruption as early as 1500 B.C.E. But radiocarbon dates from Akrotiri and nearby sites, including an olive tree buried by the eruption, pointed to a date more than 100 years earlier, in the late 17th century B.C.E.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/08/when-did-massive-volcano-blow-island-bits-and-rock-ancient-world
