Nature 363, 610 - 612 (17 June 1993); doi:10.1038/363610a0

Tephra from the Minoan eruption of Santorini in sediments of the Black Sea

F. Guichard^*†, S. Carey^†, M. A. Arthur^†‡, H. Sigurdsson^† & M. Arnold^*

^*Centre des Faibles Radioactivités (CFR), Laboratoire mixte CEA-CNRS, Domaine du CNRS, BP1, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
^†Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO), University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882-1197, USA
^‡Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

THE explosive eruption of Santorini volcano in the Aegean Sea about 3,300 years ago is of considerable archaeological and volcanological significance^1–5. Here we report the discovery of tephra from this Minoan event in laminated sediments of the Black Sea. This finding provides constraints on the distribution of debris from the eruption. We estimate a minimum fallout area of 2l0⁶ km² extending from the Black Sea in the north to the southeastern Mediterranean Sea. The main dispersal axis trends through southern Turkey, in agreement with other studies of Minoan tephra^6,7. The tephra deposits should provide a useful reference horizon for assessing the chronology of Black Sea sediments, which has been much debated^8–15.

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