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From: timothym@tekigm2.UUCP (Timothy D Margeson)
Newsgroups: talk.origins,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Re: Creation, Evolution, and Flood
Message-ID: <990@tekigm2.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Sep-86 13:05:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekigm2.990
Posted: Fri Sep 19 13:05:19 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Sep-86 03:28:35 EDT
References: <203@BMS-AT.UUCP> <723@ihlpf.UUCP> <156@rayssd.UUCP>
Reply-To: timothym@tekigm2.UUCP (Timothy D Margeson)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 41
Keywords: Exodus
Xref: linus talk.origins:65 talk.religion.misc:156


Hi,

Thera, or Santorin, is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, just off the coast
of Greece. The island has a long volcanic history, and about 4 thousand years
age (+/- alot), violently erupted creating a tidal wave estimated to exceed
500 feet, subsiding to a mere 100 feet when the shock wave hit the island of
Crete. Crete is where the archeologists have been finding much in the way of
Minoan remains. The Minoans were a sea fareing culture, with a high degree of
technology (air conditioned homes with running water and flushable toilets).

Other theories surrounding Thera include the Exodus, where Moses was lead to
the 'Red' Sea (also translates to 'Reed' Sea). The Sea of Reeds on the north
coast of Egypt is a tidal swamp, that would be drained easily in the event of
a tidal shock wave. The theory goes like this: Moses followed a column of light
northward (the column that of the volcano spew while erupting), when Moses got
to the sea, he had nowhere else to go, as he had lead the people out onto a 
narrow isthmus leading into the Sea of Reeds. Moses held the people together
for a few days - meanwhile, Pharoah decided to bring the people back into Egypt
and slavery, sneding the armies after them - as fortune would have it, just as
Moses saw the armies of Pharoah approaching, Thera exploded, spewing forth 
great amounts of white hot lava bombs, and the volcanic crater collapsed under
the weight of the sea water. The collapse of the crater, with the explosion,
created a tidal wave estimated to be 2 to 5 times larger than the one created
by Krakatoa in the 1800's (which was felt as far away as San Francisco, some
8000 miles away, and had an initial crest of only 100 feet). The water drained
from the swampy Sea of Reeds to form the wave crest, allowing Moses to lead the
people westward across the once sea bottom. The Egyptians came to the sea a few
hours later, and began following Moses' tracks. It was then that the tidal wave
hit the Egyptian coastline (it would take about 1.5 to 2 hours for the wave to
propagate from Thera to Egypt at 400 to 500 mph, the average speed of tidal 
waves). So the Egyptians were inundated with a tidal wave, killing most of them
in a blink of an eye, so to speak, while Moses looked on from the high ground 
that is to the east of the Sea of Reeds. The whole tidal event would take about
3 to 4 hours to happen, which concurs with the biblical account.

As far as Thera creating the Flood, I really have not heard of this one, and I
seriously doubt there is any evidence to support it, although if anyone knows
of any, I would be happy to look it over.

Thanks, and good cheers.....