BIBLICAL GEOLOGY 255 agricultural practices and preserved the story of the destruction of their world in the great flood The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19 : 24–26) The description of the destruction of the Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities on the Plain, contains significant elements that correspond to massive earthquakes and the opening of sulphurous springs Traditionally, Sodom and Gomorrah have been thought to have been located in the valley of the Dead Sea, perhaps even where the Dead Sea is now located In spite of clear suggestions of a catastrophic geological event, no particular event has been satisfactorily identified with this story, nor have any identifiable ruins of early second-millennium-bce towns or cities been found Thus the description stands, but a particular event or location remains a matter of conjecture The Exodus The Crossing of the Red Sea—Two Stories in Exodus 14 There are two accounts of the crossing of the Red Sea (the Hebrew name of which can also be translated as ‘Sea of Reeds’ or ‘Distant Sea’) in Chapter 14 of the Book of Exodus The accounts are intricately intertwined but refer to two readily identifiable and distinguishable phenomena It is generally agreed that the route of the Exodus from Egypt into the Sinai was close to the northern end of the Red Sea The first of these phenomena concerned the action of steady, strong winds on shallow expanses of water Water can be removed a long way from the normal shoreline of one side of a lake or inlet, for the duration of the wind, and can then return to normal levels when the wind subsides (This is a commonly observed phenomenon at Lake George, Australia, near Canberra.) At the beginning of the first account of the crossing (Exodus 14:21), we are told ‘‘the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land’’ This account then tells of the attempt of the Egyptians to follow through after the Hebrews and that their chariot wheels became clogged and they fled When it is recognized that the Hebrews had herds and were mostly on foot and would have further softened ground that was usually under water, then the clogging of the wheels of chariots would be expected The dropping of the wind and the return of the water could have been a perfectly natural phenomenon The second account is much more dramatic, with references to great walls of water (Exodus 14:22) The destruction of the Egyptians was said to have been accomplished by the catastrophic return of the water (Exodus 14:28) This second account is of a far more destructive phenomenon, compared to the first, and probably more familiar one In the second account, the sea pulls back and then surges over those who have ventured onto the ground from which the sea receded This is a classic description of the destruction wrought by a tsunami The dating of the events of the Exodus has never been exactly agreed by scholars The generally agreed range of dates is from the fifteenth century bce to the middle of the thirteenth century bce Near the beginning of this period, there was, in fact, an event that could have produced a catastrophic tsunami of the type described in Exodus In 1470 bce, the volcano Santorini erupted with about the same force as that of Krakatau in 1883 These eruptions are the largest in historical times The tsunami resulting from the Santorini eruption wrought havoc in northern Crete and on Milos and in the Peloponnese This same tsunami would have swept south, causing immense damage along the Egyptian coast and especially in the lowlying agricultural areas of the Nile Delta The sea would have withdrawn, possibly for 15 or 20 min, and then would have come the first return wave The wave that hit Milos had a height of about 100 m and travelled at about 300 km hÀ1 Even at half this speed and height, the destruction in Egypt would have been immense Such an event would have been associated with the gods, and, for the Hebrews, with their own God Thus, in Exodus 14, the accounts are of a real catastrophic event and of another event, of more common experience, combined into a single story of the power of the Hebrew God to save the Hebrew people The Plagues (Exodus 7–11) Evidence from the Greenland ice sheets implies that the Santorini eruption generated high levels of sulphuric acid There would have been sustained acid rain in the eastern Mediterranean and cooling for many years as result of the dust blasted into the atmosphere There would have been initial crop failures as a result of the acid rain and continued low yields as a result of lower temperatures The dust blasted into the high atmosphere would have darkened the sky, making the sun and moon appear red, perhaps for several years Acid rain would also have contaminated water, causing destruction of aquatic plants and fishes If this were combined with significant ash-falls, the waterways could have been rendered anoxic for a considerable length of time Moreover, contaminated water and acid rain, with sudden loss of pasture, would be associated with a rise in stock disease and invasion of settled areas by insects and other vermin in search of food sources