An international team of scientists believes that it is closer than ever to determine the most probable date for the huge eruption of the volcano of Thera (Santorini) at least 3,500 years ago.
Researchers from the United States (University of Arizona, South Dakota and Maine), Switzerland (University of Bern), Britain (University of St. Andrews and Swansea) and Italy (University of Florence), led of the University of Arizona, which published the publication in the journal “PNAS Nexus”, announced that while the exact date of the explosion is still uncertain, there are now three most probable dates: 1611 BC, 1562-1555 BC and 1538 BC.
“One of them is Thera. We can not yet confirm which of the three, but at least we now know exactly where to look,” Pearson said.
Scientists (geochemists, experts in dating, analysis of ice cores, etc.) reported that traces of a volcanic eruption which had occurred in 1628 BC. and had previously been thought to be Thera, was in fact the result of a colossal eruption of the Aniaksak II volcano in Alaska.
The so-called “Minoan” catastrophic explosion of Thera threw huge amounts of ash, which, among other things, covered the town of Akrotiri on the island. As with strong volcanic eruptions, the ash and sulfur dioxide it contained are thought to have reached the stratosphere and traveled to distant parts of the Earth, “blocking” sunlight, lowering global temperatures and causing climate changesomething that was felt and imprinted on the trees and the reduced growth of their rings.
At the same time, sulfur and ash reached the poles of the planet and were kept in the “archive” of ice, something that can be detected in today’s analysis of ice cores. The ash of each eruption has a unique geochemical footprint and thus can be associated with a specific volcanic source.
Scientists combined data from tree rings with data from the ice cores of Antarctica and Greenland, creating a complete “archive” of all powerful volcanic eruptions on Earth between 1680-1500 BC, during the period of the Thera eruption. In this way they excluded in 1628 BC. as a possible date, correlating that year with the eruption in Aniaksak II, but identified three other dates (1611 BC, 1562-1555 BC and 1538 BC) as the most likely for the “Minoan” eruption.
Two previous studies by foreign scientists had found “abnormalities” in tree rings in California and Ireland corresponding to the years 1627 BC. and 1628 BC, which were then linked to the Thera eruption, but new study shows they were ultimately related to the Alaskan eruption.
Pearson said archaeological finds so far “indicate” a date for the eruption of Thera closer to 1500 BC, while radio dating closer to 1600 BC. “I personally support an intermediate date. But we are really close to having a final solution to this problem,” he said.
“The collection of data for this investigation is comparable to the cases of crimes where the suspects must be shown to be related to both the manner and the time of the crime. Only in this case the traces are already over 3,500 years old.” said researcher Michael Siegel of the Swiss University of Bern.
The next step will be the most thorough analysis of the polar ice cores, in order to identify an ash with a chemical “profile” that will definitely match that of Thera. “This is the dream. For now, it’s nice to be closer to it than ever before,” Pearson said.
THE new study also concluded that any climatic impact from the eruption of Thera would be relatively small, much smaller than the eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia in 1815 AD.
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