Away from the center of destruction

Away from the center of destruction, Minoan life appears to have continued more or less unaffected, possibly for another 15 or 20 years. But then came the final hammer blow. In a second outburst, even more violent than the first, Santorini's volcano blew itself apart, virtually destroying the little island and leaving a deep caldera into which the blue waters of the Aegean flowed. More earthquakes almost certainly accompanied this event and these could have further damaged buildings in Crete already weakened by the earlier seismic activity. More ash and volcanic bombs would have rained down on the terrified Minoans, while dust in the atmosphere would have led to a temporary chill and a probable failure of crops. The most destructive force spawned by Santorini's death paroxysm, however, may well have been huge tidal waves, or tsunamis. Several unusual, thick sedimentary deposits on the seabed reveal that a devastating tsunami from Santorini was directed just to the west of Crete. Part of this would have slammed into the northern coastline, wrecking any ships in harbor together with the harbors themselves, thereby undermining what remained of the Minoans' once-powerful economy.