Krakatoa took out an island and was heard round the world. Santorini was an island volcano that took out the entire Minoan Empire on both Santorini and Crete. Trivia: Minoan is the name given to the society because their king was named Minos. The actual name is unknown. It is thought that the Minoans were what Plato was referring to when he told the story of a civilization submerged under the sea. Atlantis. The architecture is similar. A ringed city and a very rich culture where it was customary for the women to go topless to honor their fertility gods. That is according to the archeological evidence. In terms of shear power. The Japanese volcano is a firecracker compared to Santorini's atom bomb.

Krakatoa East of Java is a good movie, that considering its age [limited special effects], portrayed the eruption quite well.  I remember seeing it as a kid and of how in awe I was at the power of mother nature.  I'd love to see a remake of that movie with all the SFX available to film makers these day.... it'd be EPIC.

BTW, Uvah, a nice piece on the Minoans... thank you.

I wouldn't care if they corrected the title or not... so long as the movie was reasonably true to the original and it WOWED me with earth moving special effects, I'd be very happy indeed.

In fact, the BBC did a darned good re-enactment of the eruption that buried Pompeii in a documentary - Pompeii: The Last Day.  For a TV production it was first class and very well put together.  I watched it when it aired here in Oz on the ABC a few years back, but I think may be available on DVD for those who would like to see it for the first time... or again.

Ah, I just discovered that the BBC also did a similar thing on the Krakatoa eruption... it is called: Krakatoa - The Last Days.  Hmmm, I'll have to track that one down as well.

Have you seen the movie Day After Tomorrow? If you think Krakatoa or Santorini was big Yellowstone makes them look like tiny matches in comparison. Yellowstone in Arizona sits inside a caldera. The entire park is inside the mouth of a Super Volcano which last erupted app. 600 million years ago. According to the geological record it has erupted six times. The interval says the USGS between eruptions is about the same, 600 million years. The caldera was recently measured and the 'floor' of the park has risen six inches within the last ten years. Old Faithful, which had, past tense, a more or less regular eruption every hour, has now become unpredictable and the eruptions are averaging every ninety minutes. This from an article I read only yesterday. Should Yellowstone erupt again, and the USGS says it is likely to do so, not saying when of course, the shock wave would circle the planet about five times causing massive tsunamis, earthquakes greater than 7.0 on the Richter Scale, devastate North America from the mid west to the east coast, put enough debris in the atmosphere to lower global temperatures by as much as ten degrees, initiate another ice age that could last for decades and lay down a carpet of ash that in New Jersey would be six inches deep. The distance from Jersey to Arizona is what ...... 1200 miles! Something to think about.

Uvah....there's an economics of scale....when you talk a frequency of once in 600 million years .... it's not quite as critical as once in 600 minutes....where a minute here or there means you are still dead.

1 million years here or there is the exact same 'accuracy'....and a million years can mean we're all dead from 'other causes' anyway..... bit pointless to worry, really....;)

It's a bit like all those nutters who say "the end of the world is nigh".

Yes, it is.... but it is FAR MORE likely you will never see it.

....or even anyone who can vaguely recall that you ever lived....will see it.

In my lifetime there's been quite a few 'nigh's that passed....didn't stop the Reverend Jims of the world drinking their Koolade [sp] though.

Yep, the world ended for THAT bunch of idiots. [they 'could' have spared their children though....].

A comparison only. Besides, this kind of trivia I find interesting. Its a bit of 'what if'. When you think about all the volcanoes that are active around the world it kinda makes you wonder. Could be they're just venting excess heat and pressure. Imagine if you will all that heat and stuff not having a place to vent. Big kaboom.

Also interesting was Jakubovic's "Theory" regarding the tir in between The Exodus and the Santorini event ( http://varnam.org/blog/2009/04/new-exodus-theory/ ).

However, let's not delve into that... The Santorini event must have been quite something, though.

I don't blame you. I read about that some time ago. Too much controversy.