Chapter 3:

Santorini

The first historic eruption that we can compare with Pompeii is an eruption on the Island of Santorini in Greece. This famous eruption happened almost 3,500 years ago, approximately 1,500 years before the eruption at Pompeii!

In comparison with the big eruption of Vesuvius, the eruption of the Santorini Volcano around 1500 B.C. was more immense. It is estimated that seven cubic miles of magma were erupted, as compared to the one cubic mile of magma at Vesuvius. The eruption of the volcano at Santorini is thought to have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last 10,000 years.