The terrible sounds of the explosions destroyed houses, and volcanic ash was cast hundreds of kilometers away from the point of the eruption. Because of the electrical charge of the atmosphere, lightning hit many buildings, while the sound waves caused by the noise of the explosion traveled round the globe repeatedly. The greatest destruction, though, was caused by a series of waves of up to 15 meters height, which, with deadly speed, crashed on the neighboring inlands of Sumatra and Java. Whole towns (Teloek-Betoeng) disappeared under the fury of the waves, as well as blocks of stone, steam engines, and railway tracks.

A steamship was raised high by the waves, and after it was carried over the town, it was deposited intact several kilometers inland, in a forest. At the same moment and this is the strange thing fires burst in Teloek-Betoeng.. The eruption of Thera was four times stronger than that of Krakatoa. The distance between Thera and Crete is 60 miles, which is shorter than the distance between Krakatoa and Teloek-Betoeng.

Moreover, the sea is incomparably deeper near Thera than it is in Krakatoa, while the speed of the waves grows with a certain mathematical formula as the depth of the sea is increasing. In a time span that was less than an hour, the waves, tall as mountains, reached with ruinous speed the northern shores of Crete . All coastal settlements,which were flourishing until then, were carried away in a matter of minutes, while day,; if the final explosion took place in the daytime, became night" (Marinatos-Hirmer: Crete and Minoan Greece).

For about 1500 years the volcano remained dormant. The ash and pumice which covered the island erased its previous existence from human memory. A civilization whose glory is reflected in the city of Akrotiri passed into the sphere of legend.