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The last five plagues from the biblical book of Exodus are boils upon man and beast, hail of fire and ice, locust infestation, darkness, and the death of all the first-born sons of Egypt. The boils and blisters caused by the sixth plague are highly unusual, as far as these sores go. Once again Lake Nyos’ own personal disasters of 1986 helps to shed light onto the mystery of the Egyptian plagues. Carbon dioxide that escaped from underground gas chambers mixed with air put people living along the lake in a comatose state, reducing the amount of oxygen circulation to the skin resulting in the boils that sound strikingly similar to those caused by the sixth plague.

The seventh plague is described as a strange phenomenon of hail made of both fire and ice. There was an Egyptian papyrus found that says Egypt was struck by unique and terrifying hail of fire and ice. Volcanologists recognize this as volcanic hail. Volcanic hail is created when ash from an eruption gets into the stratosphere and gets coated by hail-like materials. The volcanic activity also then caused the eighth plague, an infestation of locusts. When exposed to lower temperature, the locusts’ body temperature drops and they are forced to land wherever they are. Due to the minor eruption of the Santorini volcano, it is likely that the temperature in the region did drop. Once the effects of the volcanic storms pass, the ground would warm up, thus the eighth plague would be removed.

Up until this point Santorini has only had minor eruptions. The volcano getting ready to erupt as well as its minor eruptions was enough to cause eight destructive plagues to fall upon the Egyptian empire. Finally the pressure in the volcano has built up to the point of no return, and a massive eruption takes place. When a volcano erupts it spews out magma, ash, and volcanic gases. An ash cloud released by the eruption devoured all sunlight and plunged Egypt into darkness, the ninth plague.

The tenth plague, and the plague that caused Pharaoh to finally let Moses and the Jews go, was the selective death of all the first-born males in Egypt. After Moses threatened Pharaoh with this plague, Pharaoh himself woke up to the heir of Egypt dead in his bed. So how can a volcanic eruption cause only first-born sons to meet their doom? The same gas leak that had turn the lake red, found its way out of the underground gas chambers again to become the deadly tenth plague. Carbon dioxide gas hovered along the ground like a fog hugging the ground. After the carbon dioxide fog remained long enough to suffocate and kill, it rose up and dissolved into the earth’s atmosphere. According to cultural practices, the first-born of each family was in the prime position to be exposed to the carbon dioxide. The male first born of the Egyptian families slept on privileged beds, located low to the ground. Their siblings would be safe in their higher elevated beds on roof and wagon tops, but they would meet their doom during the night. The Jews all went unaffected because God had order them to observe the first Passover meal all night in the upper rooms.

For years theologians and historians have puzzled over the exodus of the Jews. Now it seems archeologist Simcha Jacobovici has a plausible theory that one would think would silence the arguments and end confusion over this biblical event. Many in Jacobvici’s field strongly and passionately disagree with him. So the story of Exodus and if it even occurred is still a mystery among most scholars. But to Jews and Christians alike, this is a story of how God delivered his people, and used the violent aspects of this world he created to do so.