Re: New archaeological evidence casts doubt on mega-tsunami theory of Minoan collapse

From: Philip Deitiker (Donevenask_at_worlnet.att.net)
Date: 01/09/05 

Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 06:40:43 GMT

"Daryl Krupa" <icycalmca@yahoo.com> says in
news:1105246360.226938.82340@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

> " Re-examination of the original LBA tsunami hypothesis has
> demonstrated either that the arguments proposed were flawed
> (because of the findings of new geological evidence) or that
> they lack any substantive archaeological or geological evidence.
> Further publications supposedly demonstrating evidence for LBA
> tsunami (i.e. pumice on beaches) have also been critically
> reviewed and rejected since these papers are based on a
> misunderstanding of the hydrodynamics of tsunami wave
> propagation. Results of a geological investigation of over forty
> sites on Crete and Kos have failed to identify any evidence that
> may be associated with a LBA tsunami.
> If a LBA tsunami was generated, only a sparse geological record
> remains and such evidence may only be used to infer the action
> of near-field tsunami.
> It is likely that a LBA tsunami would have attenuated quickly
> within the Aegean archipelago. "

Again, the effects could have been distal if one considers the
direction of propogation. It is not wise to generalize unless one
considers the potentials sites like Kithira, AndiKithira. The sea
floor rises up from Santorini and such a wave would have devastated
these two island as well as Peloponnies and NW crete. The problem is
that for a tsunami to be most devastating it needs to propogate along
the deep ocean floor rising at the last moment before it hits land,
passing the Kithiras the sea floor drops and the wave would be in 300
meters of water to the coast of libya and the island of malta, being
so close to the surface will cause a premature dissipation of the
compression wave as water it compressed to the surface creating as
surface wave. The irony of tsunamis is that if you can create a
compression wave it will travel quite rapidly, but water does not
like to be compressed, and when it is compressed closed to the
surface the wave is converted into a surface wave which are very much
slower. Still a wave that is 100 meters in depth is going to carry at
least some energy to africa. The problem I see observing the map is
that the coastal structures which generate really great tsunami
product waves, like we see in parts of indoneasia and previously in
Japan, are coastlines that rise up relatively quickly on a constant
slope and areas with conical shape coastlines in with the tip of the
cone points in the direction of wave propogation. These structures
don't exist except in NW create and the western aegean. Lybias
coastline rises slowly, and a wave has little effect if it breaks 10
miles offshore.

  My opinion was that the Santorini tsunami was devastating beyond
modern comprehension, but to a very small number of sites. Normally
one can expect reflective waves to also damage other sites, but the
aegean sea will act to scatter that wave energy and cancel these
various waves out _except_ for the fact that the reflections could
compile in very specific locations to create a large wave, that large
wave may not conincide with where people actually live.
  I can ask around the next time I am in Japan, but I don't beleive
the Unzen explosion was anywhere near as catastrophic as the
Santorini explosion. One has to keep one thing in mind, a moderate
catastrophe and there are many witnesses. A major catastrophe and
there are very few witnesses. The larger the catastrophe the more
likely the witnesses will be unfamiliar with the source of the
catastrophe. I know that Ariki bay near saga as an 6 meter tidal
extreme, which most people were used to tidal surges, thus if 4200
people died as a result of a tsunami I would expect that the wave was
of great height, and we can expect the Santorini wave was much much
greator. The issue is where did it hit and is the evidence of the
impact muddled by time and human activities.
  I think we are seeing at least some of the 'fog' created in
Indonesia, where it is impossible now to know how many people died
because in some areas there are no bodies left, there are no records
left, in some instances alls surviving local relatives are dead and
distal relatives have no means of contact. Without modern science few
would have know where the wave started, and it is only because we
know the wave started in place X that we have sent expeditions to
places close to X to survey the damage, and as we probe deeper into
these places we see the depth of the damage. Some of those islands
along indonesia were not previosly inhabited by humans, those islands
turn out to be the most severly damaged. Consider for example the
current death toll, many people claim they are missing relatives, far
more are missing in some areas than have been found. Are we to assume
that they are buried in someone esles mass grave. I think one has to
face the basic fact that excessively large natural events are beyond
human abilities to account for them. A biblical account, for example
a flood story, might conclude every body died except 3 families, of
course this is rediculous and we would not believe any other story
claiming mass death from the period, assuming these myths account
from anywhere from 5% to all of the population imbellished over time.
So there is no general way to measure the affect in history of that
age. You can simply extrapolate that some folks got whooped pretty
bad, and most did not, and god only knows if others were curious
enough to investigate those damages areas, or did they fear evil
spirits and stay away. 

-- 
Philip
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