Editing Crossing the Red Sea (section)

=== Volcanic eruption ===
[[File:Pinatubo 1991-06-12 (USGS).jpg|thumb|The June 12, 1991 eruption column from Mount Pinatubo]]
[[File:Eruzione Etna 13-01-2011 B.jpg|thumb|Etna eruption on January 13th 2011 at night.]]
{{See also|Pillars of fire and cloud}}

The [[Minoan eruption]] was a catastrophic volcanic eruption known to have devastated the [[Santorini]] island circa 1600 BC.  There was likely another eruption in the [[South Aegean Volcanic Arc]] sometime around 1450 BC. Geologist Barbara J. Sivertsen has proposed a link between these eruptions and the Exodus. The pillar of fire and cloud described in Exodus could easily be a volcanic [[eruption column]], smoky by day and fiery by night.<ref name="Sivertsen">{{cite book |title=The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Story of the Exodus |last=Sivertsen |first=Barbara J. |year=2009 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |chapter=The Minoan Eruption |isbn=978-0-691-13770-4 |pages=59–60}}</ref> A BBC documentary, "Moses", suggested that the Minoan eruption could have triggered a 600ft-high tidal wave, travelling at about 400 miles an hour, which would have been 6ft high and a hundred miles long when it reached the Egyptian delta.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1412815/Biblical-plagues-and-parting-of-Red-Sea-caused-by-volcano.html|title=Biblical plagues and parting of Red Sea 'caused by volcano'|first=Jonathan|last=Petre|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=2002-11-11|access-date=2018-08-18|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>