We are overdue for a major volcanic eruption and one of the candidates to place bets on is a super volcano- the Yellowstone Park super volcano. If it does erupt, we’re in really deep yogurt and pumice. But one of the largest eruptions in history took place just Southeast of the Greece mainland, but a long, long time ago, Can you say the fifteenth century BCE (1628)? It’s known as the Thera volcanic explosion, with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) that made the 1883 Krakatoa explosion that killed 35,000+ people look quaint.
Many remember the Mount Vesuvius eruption of the same era but few have heard of Thera!
Known today as Santorini, this small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km south-east from Greece’s mainland is what’s left of a once large island. The Minoan eruption which occurred some 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete.
Another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis though for me it’s too far East in the Mediterranean Sea to qualify. And neither does the date work for me. But, I digress.
Scientists estimate that the blast sent debris 23 miles high. Ash settled as far away as China, Greenland and western North America. And, the blast also triggered 40-foot-high tsunamis that slammed into the island of Crete, nearly 70 miles to the south, and likely contributed to the downfall of its famed Minoan civilization. Amazing power!
Akrotiri, a city of 30,000 people on the seaward side of Thera, was buried intact under forty feet of ash and pumice. Excavations yield no human remains, and few personal belongings. The people on Thera saw disaster coming and they cleared out in time.
So, here’s our question- my 2012 question. as I have previously written in the “Yellowstone Supervolcano” article, he bulge in the bottom of Yellowstone lake is growing, distortions are happening more rapidly, ground surface temperatures have reached 200F degrees (in 2003) causing a 200 mile basin to be closed, and we have terrorists talking about what might be done to cause this caldera to explode. How much warning might we have beyond what we already know and where might we go?
Remember, Thera was not a supervolcano either. 
