How did those two explosions compare with the one that created Crater Lake?
Sobering that all all in “historical” times. The Indians have legends about Crater Lake. Krakatoa was in modern times, the Minoean explosion was recorded by observers.
the Minoean explosion was recorded by observers.The only Theran eruption noted in surviving ancient records refers to an eruption circa 200 BC.
Sorry for the slow reply. There's a couple of references to the Mazama eruption volume, basically ranging from 30-56 square km of ash. The Santorini "upgrade" I referenced put it at ~60. So the comparison ranges from roughly comparable to 2x for Santorini. Krakatoa is generally considered to have been around 18. Pinatubo was 10.
Here's a good little table. Tambora more accurately (as much as that's possible) is more like 130 than 100.
Aside from the nice link about Ancient Volcanos the cogitator posted, Crater Lake has a six mile wide caldera, and Pinitubo has a 3 mile wide caldera. Do we know how wide the Thera crater is?
Other major eruptions not listed in the Ancient Volcanos link include: Sakara-Jima in Japan which left a 15 mile diameter caldera about 22,000 years ago. The current volcano of that name sits on one edge of the caldera bay. Two more major eruptions of Yellowstone, the most recent about 640,000 years ago, and perhaps coming due soon. There were also major eruptions of Vesuvius in prehistoric times leaving a caldera that the current mountain sits within.
There's all sorts of relatively recent volcanic activity in Oregon ... if memory serves, some of the massive lava flows in the Three Sisters area date from as recently as 10,000 years ago -- which I think is within the time when humans were in the area.