:18:27
No one who has witnessed
the violance of a volcano
:18:31
can continue
in the innocent belief
:18:33
in a placid, unchanging earth
:18:36
nor in the continuity
of our history
:18:39
nor in the inevitable progress
of our civilizations
:18:47
1 5 centuries before Christ
:18:50
Europe's first great
civilization flourished
:18:52
in the eastern Mediterranean.
:18:55
lt was the Minoan civilization,
and this-
:18:58
the palace of King Minos
at Knossos on Crete-
:19:02
its greatest palace.
:19:05
The Minoans dominated
the Mediterranean in their time.
:19:10
Then, almost overnight
:19:12
the Minoan culture was lost
in an eclipe of time.
:19:19
What power could cripple
a civilization in a stroke?
:19:23
The new theory
of plate tectonics
:19:26
suggested a cataclysmic
tectonic event
:19:32
Evidence led scientists
70 mile north of Crete
:19:35
to a small island in
the Aegean Sea, Santorini-
:19:40
ancient Thera.