Approximately 8,300 years ago, a cataclysm struck a large settlement in what is now modern
day Israel.
In what was confirmed to be less than a year, presumably only across a single day, a successful
coastal town of 2,000 people was completely abandoned, with people to never return again.
This disaster must have struck suddenly, as stockpiles of fish were left alone to decay
after it struck.
Yet, there were no signs of warfare or wildfire, and this section of Israel has not seen any
volcanic eruptions for millions of years.
Despite all of this, the conclusion was eventually made that the ancient village of Atlit Yam
which now lies 12 meters or 39.4 feet below sea level was surprisingly destroyed by a
volcano.
But, the culprit was not any active volcano in the middle east.
Instead, it was a now famous volcano 1,890 kilometers to the west-northwest on the modern
day island of Sicily.
There, the towering Mount Etna stratovolcano rose to a height of 3,600 meters or 11,811
feet, a full 250 meters taller than it is today.
But, in mere moments this would forever change, as an ongoing landslide on the volcano's eastern
flank picked up in speed.
Suddenly, this slope passed a threshold of no return, causing an 80 square kilometer
region approximately 300 meters or 984 feet thick to all at once collapse into the Mediterranean
Sea to the east.
As a massive 25 cubic kilometer debris avalanche flattened and buried everything in its path,
it would only take three minutes to enter the sea.
Upon entering the Mediterranean Sea, the landslide continued eastwards at a high speed, all the
white displacing large volumes of water, forming a tsunami.
This tsunami had an initial wave height of 40 meters or 131 feet, which crashed into
the entire island of Sicily, inundating coastlines and toppling millions of trees.
While this wave would decrease in height as it expanded outwards from its source, it would
go on to flood coastlines along the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Reaching Cyprus 3 hours later, the tsunami had decreased to only half a meter in height.
Yet, as this wave approached what is now northwestern Israel, the near shore topography allowed
the tsunami to regain some height, increasing to 2.5 meters or 8.2 feet tall.
For clarification, 8,300 years ago, the current coastline was approximately a kilometer west
of its modern location at Atlit Yam, as the global sea level was 13.7 meters or 45 feet
lower than it is today.
Thus, Atlit Yam was located 320 meters or 1,050 feet inland from the coastline, about
the same distance away that Neve Yam is today, but unlike Neve Yam was only 1.7 meters or
5.6 feet above sea level.
Thus, when the tsunami struck, it flooded houses, washing away everything but the foundation,
with the town being flooded by an 80 centimeter or 2.62 foot tall wall of water.
Crops and irrigation were instantaneously ruined, but more destructive was the fact
that the freshwater well was also flooded, now filled with saltwater which could not
be drank from in the future.
Thus, those who survived the initial waves fled and never came back, as all of their
food and water was now contaminated by saltwater.
And this is why Atlit Yam was abandoned, being destroyed by a volcanic landslide that originated
more than 1,000 kilometers away.
But, why did this landslide occur?
It was initially thought that a dike expansion underneath Etna's eastern flank was the cause,
as suggested by the fact that in some earthquake sequences before an eruption occurs at Etna,
magma seemingly starts beneath Valle del Bove before going towards the summit.
Yet, the most recent evidence suggests a completely different culprit; gravity.
As the volcanic rocks of Mount Etna were emplaced on top of older rock which is less prone to
erosion and more stable.
To represent this, I have a cookie sheet, a pillow, and a placemat.
Pretend that this is the eastern slope of Mount Etna from a northern view facing south
8300 years ago.
The cookie sheet represents the older rocks while the placemat represents Etna's volcanic
rocks.
At one point, this system was in equilibrium.
However, once additional volcanic rocks aka additional mass were emplaced in Etna's summit
region, it eventually caused the entire top layer of rocks on a section of the volcano
to collapse in a massive landslide.
Today, the scars from this ancient landslide can be found on Etna's Valle del Bove, which
has cliff faces surpassing 300 meters in height in some areas.
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