This January, University of Haifa marine geo-archeologist Prof. Beverly Goodman Tchernov happened to be on Santorini as the Greek island experienced its most significant seismic activity in recent memory. 

This extraordinary series of over 1,200 earthquakes, which experts feared could end in a massive quake and tsunami, brought alive her 25 years of research on ancient tsunamis and seismic events in the Mediterranean, particularly the massive eruption of Santorini’s volcano approximately 3,600 years ago. 

Indeed, earlier this month Israel was placed under a tsunami alert as a result of the earthquakes, and the National Security Council convened an emergency meeting. 

It was only by a twist of fate that this National Geographic Explorer from Israel found herself on the island when the tremblors began. 

She’d been invited as a faculty member for a field school expedition under the European CIVIS alliance of universities. One by one, the other six faculty members withdrew due to increasing seismic activity until she was the only one left to guide students through a natural reenactment of ancient geological history.

“We had earthquakes all the time,” Goodman Tchernov recalls of her time on Santorini. “You could feel one at least three times an hour. Some days there were like 500 recorded in the region.”

Decades of research

The experience offered unique insights into her research, which began with a single curious geological deposit on Israel’s coast that hinted at ancient tsunami activity. 

A paper on that initial discovery, published in 2006, led to a broader investigation that would reshape our understanding of historical Mediterranean disasters.

Goodman Tchernov became a specialist in marine hazards, tsunamis and geo-archeology at the university’s Charney School of Marine Sciences.

Cap: Experts feared the earthquakes could end in a massive quake that could cause a landslide into the sea. 

Three years after the publication of that paper, she revealed solid evidence of a massive tsunami in Israel, triggered by the Bronze Age eruption of Santorini.

This catastrophic event has long puzzled researchers. Despite estimates suggesting tens of thousands of casualties, no mass graves had ever been discovered – a mystery that would drive Goodman Tchernov’s research for years to come.

The Turkish skeleton

The breakthrough came in 2022 in Çeşme, Turkey. 

Working with a Turkish colleague from the University of Ankara, Goodman Tchernov’s team made a historic discovery: the first confirmed victim of the ancient Santorini tsunami. 

The skeleton, found in a scalloped depression created by wave action, was surrounded by debris and showed no signs of formal burial.

“When the archeologists first encountered the skeleton, they recognized that it was unusual,” Goodman Tchernov explains. “They even wrote in their notes, ‘murder victim?'”

The discovery opened new avenues for identifying tsunami victims in archeological contexts and suggested that many more victims might have been overlooked in previous excavations.

In 2023, Goodman Tchernov and her international team – including partners from Turkey and Greece – were finalizing a major European Research Council grant application when the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel led to war. 

Yet despite the regional tensions, her colleagues refused to proceed without her. “They said, ‘We’re not doing any of this research unless you’re a part of it. You’re too important to the research. We are a team,'” Goodman Tchernov recalls.

Insights into human behavior

The January experience in Santorini offered unprecedented insights into human behavior during seismic events. 

Goodman Tchernov watched as island residents made practical rather than panic-driven decisions about evacuation.

Families with young children left when schools closed, while older residents often stayed to protect their properties. Foreign workers, constrained by economic limitations, had little choice but to remain.

“The human choices — whether to stay or go — are pretty fascinating,” Goodman Tchernov reflects. “It’s one thing to talk about it from a theoretical perspective; it’s another thing to be a part of it.” 

These observations gave her new context for understanding how ancient populations might have responded to similar threats, including the theory that pre-eruption earthquakes served as a warning system for the Bronze Age catastrophe.

Time is a flat circle

Goodman Tchernov plans to return to Santorini, once the seismic activity dies down, to conduct underwater research. 

She says her team maintains strict safety protocols, carefully assessing risks and establishing detailed emergency plans for each project.

“It’s okay to do risky things, but you can do it in a more careful, calculated manner,” she explains, though she admits with a laugh that she doesn’t tell her mother about the more adventurous aspects of her work.

As Santorini’s recent tremors gradually subside, they leave behind new insights into both the past and the future. 

Through Goodman Tchernov’s work, these seismic events serve not just as warnings of potential danger, but as bridges connecting us to our ancient predecessors who faced similar challenges millennia ago.

“When we’re working on ancient events, sometimes people don’t understand that it’s important for now,” she concludes. “It’s not a self-indulgent novelty to better reconstruct history, but in fact, this kind of information lets us know what our own risk is.”