An eruption of this size likely had far-reaching impacts on the environment and civilizations in the region. The much-smaller Krakatau eruption of 1883 in Indonesia created a 100-foot-high tsunami that killed 36,000 people, as well as pyroclastic flows that traveled 40 kilometers across the surface of the seas killing 1,000 people on nearby islands. The Thera eruption would likely have generated an even larger tsunami and pyroclastic flows that traveled much farther over the surface of the sea... Thera has erupted numerous times over the last 400,000 years, four of which were of such magnitude that the island collapsed and craters were formed. Some scientists believe the massive eruption 3,600 years ago was responsible for the disappearance of the Minoan culture on nearby Crete. Others link the eruption to the disappearance of the legendary island of Atlantis. (Todd McLeish, “Santorini eruption much larger than originally believed,” University Rhode Island, 8-23-2006)

The extensive range of the Thera eruption is shown by the wide distribution of Bronze Age tephra, found in both deep-sea sediments of the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Black Sea, and in archeological sites throughout the Mediterranean coast. It is essential to understand that at least four separate eruptions detached by significant time-spans ultimately triggered the collapse of the island. This point suggests that the civilization of Thera was perhaps much older than the last eruption we know of at around 1600 B.C.

A peculiar oddity of the Santorini-Akrotiri excavations is that human remains weren’t discovered there. The entire population of the Minoan port safely evacuated before the last massive eruption 3,600 years ago. But when, and where, did they go?

Several years ago, I worked with Professor Spyridon Marinatos, the archaeologist who discovered the ruins of Akrotiri on the island of Thera. I was the assistant of Spiros Tsavdaroglou, an official photographer for the National Archaeological Museum of Greece. We photographed Minoan and Mycenaean sites and artifacts for Professor Marinatos, who was one of the premier Greek archaeologists of the 20th century (his name is mentioned in the video game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). As I tried to figure out where misplaced citizens of a Bronze Age volcanic island could have migrated to, I now and again discussed with my friend Frank Pantages the phonetic origins of the ancient name: TE-RA. The name Santorini was given to the island by the Venetians in the 1200s, in honor of Saint Irene. Before then it was known as Kalliste (the most beautiful one), Strongyle (the circular one), or Thera.

Some researchers link the TE-RA (or Qera) vocal sounds to Tiresias, the most famous soothsayer of ancient Greek mythology. With a lifespan of seven lives, the prophet of Thebes was transformed into a woman, turned back into a man, and finally struck blind. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that the Bible gives the name of Abraham's father as Terah: “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.” (Joshua 24:2) The “other gods” were possibly idols or pagan deities such as Atlas and Poseidon. The phrase, “on the other side of the flood” is recognized to signify beyond the Euphrates River.

Author and social reformer of the 1800s Ignatius Donnelly said that links are made in the Old Testament to the "islands of the sea," especially in Isaiah and Ezekiel. What had an inland people, like the Jews, to do with distant seas and islands? Did these hints grow out of traditions linking their race with islands in the sea?

Presently, Spanish researchers are setting up excavations in the national park of Donana, in Andalusia, after having confirmed thanks to satellite photos the existence of great artificial structures which could belong to the mysterious and ancient city of Tartessos, which modern studies and readings of the Greek authors believe to have identified with Plato’s Atlantis. Two Germans, lecturer Werner Wickboldt and physicist Rainer Kuehne, relaunched the theory of Atlantis-Tartessos in 2004, beginning from these results.

In a topical commentary, “Comparison of Atlantis and the Sea Peoples,” Dr Kuhne suggested that the Atlantean warriors could be identified with the Sea Peoples who are mentioned in inscriptions of around 1180 BC under Pharaoh Ramses III. Dr Kuhne supported the idea of comparison between Plato's description of the Atlanteans and the description of the Sea Peoples by Ramses III.

One recent theory equates Atlantis with Spartel Island, a mud shoal in the straits of Gibraltar that sank into the sea 11,000 years ago. Plato described Atlantis as having a "plain." Dr Kuehne said this might be the plain that extends today from Spain's southern coast up to the city of Seville. The high mountains described by the Greek scholar could be the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada. (Paul Rincon, Satellite images 'show Atlantis,' BBC News Online, June 6, 2004)

The geologist of the Spanish researchers group, Antonio Rodriguez said that the results from the geological examinations suggest a tsunami happened around 1500 BC. But what caused the tsunami? According to tsunami expert Costas Synolakis, from the University of Southern California, the study of ancient tsunamis is in its infancy and people have not, until now, really known what to look for. Scientists have obtained radiocarbon dates for deposits that show a tsunami could have wiped out the coast of Minoan Crete and disturbed its capital at Knossos at the same time as the eruption of the Santorini volcano, in the middle of the second millennium BC.

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