JTEM
2007-04-02 23:51:08 UTC
Came across this in another group....
Egyptian archeologists find ancient lava
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070402/ap_on_sc/egypt_ancient_eruption_1
By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago
TEL HABUWA, Egypt - Egyptian archaeologists on Monday presented
white stones of pumice that they believe a tsunami in ancient times
carried 530 miles across the Mediterranean to north Sinai.
The pumice was discharged by a volcanic eruption in the ancient
Greek island of Santorini in the 17th century B.C. Traces of this
solidified lava foam that floats have been found in Crete and
southwestern Turkey, but Egypt's archaeologists believe it also
reached this site in the Sinai desert, about 4 miles south of the
coast.
The Santorini explosion was devastating. It sunk most of the island
and killed over 35,000 people of a thriving Minoan community.
The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass,
hailed the discovery as opening a "new field" of study in Egyptology.
"Geologists will help us study how ... natural disasters, such as the
Santorini tsunami, affected the Pharaonic period."
[---see URL for the rest of story---]
Egyptian archeologists find ancient lava
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070402/ap_on_sc/egypt_ancient_eruption_1
By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago
TEL HABUWA, Egypt - Egyptian archaeologists on Monday presented
white stones of pumice that they believe a tsunami in ancient times
carried 530 miles across the Mediterranean to north Sinai.
The pumice was discharged by a volcanic eruption in the ancient
Greek island of Santorini in the 17th century B.C. Traces of this
solidified lava foam that floats have been found in Crete and
southwestern Turkey, but Egypt's archaeologists believe it also
reached this site in the Sinai desert, about 4 miles south of the
coast.
The Santorini explosion was devastating. It sunk most of the island
and killed over 35,000 people of a thriving Minoan community.
The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass,
hailed the discovery as opening a "new field" of study in Egyptology.
"Geologists will help us study how ... natural disasters, such as the
Santorini tsunami, affected the Pharaonic period."
[---see URL for the rest of story---]