Spartan Colonies - Ancient Melos, Ancient Thera, Venus de Milo, Taranto, Knidos, Minoan Eruption, Akrotiri, Melian Dialogue, Phylakopi, Lyctus (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Ancient Melos, Ancient Thera, Venus de Milo, Taranto, Knidos, Minoan Eruption, Akrotiri, Melian Dialogue, Phylakopi, Lyctus, Heraclea in Trachis, Therasia, Sellada, Battle of Melos, Themison of Thera, Foronia. Excerpt: The Minoan eruption of Thera, also referred to as the Thera eruption or Santorini eruption, was a major catastrophic volcanic eruption (Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) = 6 or 7, Dense-rock equivalent (DRE) = 60 km) which is estimated to have occurred in the mid second millennium BCE. The eruption was one of the largest volcanic events on Earth in recorded history. The eruption devastated the island of Thera (also called Santorini), including the Minoan settlement at Akrotiri -- as well as communities and agricultural areas on nearby islands and on the coast of Crete. The eruption seems to have inspired certain Greek myths and may have caused turmoil in Egypt. Additionally, it has been speculated that the Minoan eruption and the destruction of the city at Akrotiri provided the basis for or otherwise inspired Plato's story of Atlantis. Volcanic craters on Santorini today Geological evidence shows the Thera volcano erupted numerous times over several hundred thousand years before the Minoan eruption. In a repeating process, the volcano would violently erupt, then eventually collapse into a roughly circular seawater-filled caldera, with numerous small islands forming the circle. The caldera would slowly refill with magma, building a new volcano, which erupted and then collapsed in an ongoing cyclical process. Another famous volcano known to repeat a similar process is Krakatoa in Indonesia. Immediately prior to the Minoan eruption, the walls of the caldera formed a nearly continuous ring of islands with the only entrance lying b... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4217801