The wave that destroyed Atlantis --BBC Science

[Demeter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6568053.stm


The wave that destroyed Atlantis
By Harvey Lilley
BBC Timewatch


The legend of Atlantis, the country that disappeared under the sea, may be more than just a myth. Research on the Greek island of Crete suggests Europe's earliest civilisation was destroyed by a giant tsunami.


SEE LINK FOR Video reconstruction of the tsunami


Until about 3,500 years ago, a spectacular ancient civilisation was flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ancient Minoans were building palaces, paved streets and sewers, while most Europeans were still living in primitive huts. But around 1500BC the people who spawned the myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth abruptly disappeared. Now the mystery of their cataclysmic end may finally have been solved...A group of scientists have uncovered new evidence that the island of Crete was hit by a massive tsunami at the same time that Minoan culture disappeared. The wave would have been as powerful as the one that devastated the coastlines of Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing day 2004 leading to the loss of over 250,000 lives.

"The geo-archaeological deposits contain a number of distinct tsunami signatures," says Dutch-born geologist Professor Hendrik Bruins of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. "Minoan building material, pottery and cups along with food residue such as isolated animal bones were mixed up with rounded beach pebbles and sea shells and microscopic marine fauna. The latter can only have been scooped up from the sea-bed by one mechanism - a powerful tsunami, dumping all these materials together in a destructive swoop," says Professor Bruins. The deposits are up to seven metres above sea level, well above the normal reach of storm waves. "An event of ferocious force hit the coast of Crete and this wasn't just a Mediterranean storm," says Professor Bruins.

Big wave


But if this evidence is so clear why has it not been discovered before now?
Tsunami expert Costas Synolakis, from the University of Southern California, says that the study of ancient tsunamis is in its infancy and people have not, until now, really known what to look for.
Many scientists are still of the view that these waves only blasted material away and did not leave much behind in the way of deposits. But observation of the Asian tsunami of 2004 changed all that.
"If you remember the video footage," says Costas, "some of it showed tonnes of debris being carried along by the wave and much of it was deposited inland."

Volcanic eruption

Costas Synolakis has come to the conclusion that the wave would have been as powerful as the one that devastated the coastlines of Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing day 2004 leading to the loss of over 250,000 lives....But what caused the tsunami? The scientists have obtained radiocarbon dates for the deposits that show the tsunami could have hit the coast at exactly the same time as an eruption of the Santorini volcano, 70 km north of Crete, in the middle of the second millennium BC.
Recent scientific work has established that the Santorini eruption was up to 10 times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It caused massive climatic disruption and the blast was heard over 3000 miles away. Costas Synolakis thinks that the collapse of Santorini's giant volcanic cone into the sea during the eruption was the mechanism that generated a wave large enough to destroy the Minoan coastal towns.

It is not clear if the tsunami could have reached inland to the Minoan capital at Knossos, but the fallout from the volcano would have carried other consequences - massive ash falls and crop failure. With their ports, trading fleet and navy destroyed, the Minoans would never have fully recovered.

The myth of Atlantis, the city state that was lost beneath the sea, was first mentioned by Plato over 2000 years ago. It has had a hold on the popular imagination for centuries. Perhaps we now have an explanation of its origin - a folk memory of a real ancient civilisation swallowed by the sea.

[WCGreen]

1. That has been on the History Channel for about two years now...

[DKRC]

2. Thanks for posting this. nt

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Oh, those archeologists

Always theorizing.

I think they have too much time on their hands.

[Larkspur]

4. Thanks for posting. I'm fascinated by Minoan Crete culture

I hope to visit Crete and Santorini someday.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Something went on there, but I always wanted Atlantis to be in

the Atlantic - a place enormous and sophisticed.

[Briar]

6. Bettany Hughes

covered much of the same material in a much less stodgy documentary a couple of years ago.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. From memory, seemingly confirmed by this webpage, this was a theory 50 years ago

when Mary Renault wrote "The King Must Die":

Inevitably, the explosion of Thera leads to a tsunami that destroys the Cretan hegemony.

http://www.silverscreentest.com/koala/eucalyptus/july03.htm

I can remember being told this seemed a likely explanation in school, 25 years ago.

[bklyncowgirl]

8. This is an old theory. What's new is that scientists can compare debris deposits

With the 2004 tsunami, scientists have undisturbed debris deposits from the to study and compare with debris deposits found in Crete. Apparently the similarities are striking. This has added considerable strength to the theory. There are some questions about the dating of the Santorini eruption--tree ring dating places it a few hundred years earlier than most archaeologists believe--but I doubt if anyone can nail these dates exactly. Archaeological and historical records show the Minoans active in Egypt until around 1500BC disappearing for some years until the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (around 1450 BC).

I've traveled in Crete and most of their ancient cities were on bays on the northern coast. They had no defensive walls. Most of the palaces were just a few feet above sea level. The exceptions were Knossos which lies a few miles inland and Phaistos which commands a cliff top view on the southern part of the island near Matala. Phaistos and Knossos both suffered severe earthquake and fire damage at the time. Part of the Phaistos palace fell off the cliff. Knossos was rebuilt and eventually flourished for some years but this incredibly graceful and promising civilization was irreperably damaged and eventually taken over by Mycenean Greeks from the mainland.

It's a great theory and I'm thrilled to see new evidence supporting it.