1610 BC Tsunami: Thera Island (Santorini), Greece

1410 B.C., 36.4 N, 25.4 E, tsunami intensity vi, validity 3. Explosion of volcano Santorini causing caldera collapse. Catastrophic tsunami generated. Destruction of Minoan towns in North Crete coast (Amnisos, Nirou Khani, Malia, Pseira...) first hypotesised to be the effect of the tsunami by Marinatos [reference #2986]. Devastation from the tsunami occurred along northern Crete, western Cyprus, and the eastern Mediterranean as far as the Syrian coasts. Estimates of height of the tsunami vary from 40 to 90 m. The tsunami may have resulted from the caldera collapse, subsidence, or from an explosion when sea water encountered the hot magma in the collapsing caldera. (reference #4139)

Second millennium B.C.

According to excavated cuneiform texts on clay boards, a tsunami of intensity vi [?] occurred in Syria. These writings most likely referred to the events of 1380 B.C. (1380+ 100) B.C., and to the period between 1700 B.C. and 1380 B.C. in accordance with other sources.

Aegean Sea, Island of Thira, Hellenic Arc, Island of Crete. The catastrophic eruption of the volcano of Santorini accompanied by earthquakes and a powerful tsunami. As a result of natural disasters, the potent Minoan

Kingdom of the Late Bronze age ceased to exist on the islands of the Aegean Sea. No eyewitness account of these events has reached modern times. The reconstruction of events is based on the data of marine and ground geology,

geochemistry, archaeology, in combination with fragmentary allusions in annals and legends written considerably later....

...Application of the methods of chemical analysis of isotopes has led to the conclusion that the first enormous eruption occurred earlier than 25,000 years ago, the second not earlier than 5,000 years ago. More accurately, the eruption has been dated at (1410 + 100) B.C. using the Carbon - 14 isotope inside the fragment of an ancient tree found under the ash layer on the present day Island of Thira. An estimation of the age of this sample, performed later, by the same method resulted in the earlier date of the eruption and of the ashfall: between 1700 and 1620 B.C., most likely, in 1640 - 1620 B.C.

...More reliable evidence that the tsunami generated by the eruption of Santorini did reach the shores of the Near East, actually retaining its destructive force, was obtained during the geological exploration carried out in the region of the Syrian city of Ugarit, which used to be the capital of the ancient North - Phoenician state. A library of clay boards filled up with cuneiform was

excavated. Scientists deciphered one of the poems with an account of how the harbour and half of the city of Ugarit were washed out by a strong wave approximately in 1380 B.C. It is quite possible that precisely this date should be

considered the most probable date for the paroxysmal eruption of Santorini and the tsunami that followed it.

(above from reference #2130)

Dates of eruption as listed in literature:

YearReference #late 17th Century B.C24061650 B.C.14121630 B.C.111641638 B.C.23801627-1600 B.C29911610 B.C.96751410 B.C.41391380 B.C.416, 2130