CATASTROPHE ON COASTAL CRETE - MODELING TSUNAMI FROM THE MINOAN ERUPTION OF SANTORINI

During the second millennium BC, one of the largest eruptions in human antiquity destroyed a Bronze Age Cycladic culture inhabiting today's Santorini (Thera) island and the surrounding Cycladic islands. The eruption was an unparalleled natural disaster to the region, and likely provided the coup de grace to the Minoan culture on Crete about 120 km south of Santorini. Both were thalassocratic societies, thus of all the regional far-field effects from this eruption, tsunami were likely the most devastating. Sedimentary deposits left by these tsunami along coastal areas of Crete, Santorini and SW Turkey, and in abyssal sediments of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, suggest possible wave heights with inference for run-up and inundation levels. Mechanisms for the generation of tsunami during this ancient eruption may be evaluated from observations of tsunamigenic activity during modern eruptions, such as caldera collapse and the entry of pyroclastic and debris flows into the sea – all of which occurred during the Minoan eruption. Tsunami were likely generated throughout the eruption, producing numerous, perhaps dozens, of wave sets that resulted in repeated episodes of coastal inundation. Modeling of wave generation, propagation and impact along the coastlines of Crete was done using a variety of published computer programs. The results are in good agreement with wave properties suggested from sedimentary deposits. Maximum calculated wave heights vary from negligible to 26m along the north and east coasts of Crete. From these simulations, we are able to predict sites where tsunami damage was significant and might be recognizable in the ruins at archaeological sites, and certainly document that the consequences of tsunami impact were significant to these Bronze Age cultures.