Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Floyd W. McCoy, Jr.

Professional Affiliations

Assoc. Professor of Geology and Oceanography, Dept. Natural Sciences, Univ. Hawaii - Windward (Kaneohe, HI)
Affiliate Graduate Faculty, Dept. Geology & Geophysics, Univ. Hawaii - Manoa (Honolulu, HI)
Affiliate Graduate Faculty, Certificate Program in Maritime Archaeology & History, Univ. Hawaii - Manoa
Senior Researcher, Associated Scientists at Woods Hole (Woods Hole, MA)
Member, Managing Committee & Wiener Laboratory Committee, American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Greece)

Education

Ph.D. (1974) Geological Sciences, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA
M.S. (1965) Geological Sciences, Univ. Hawaii, Honolulu, HI
B.S. (1962) Geology, Univ. Hawaii, Honolulu, HI
Primary and secondary education in Honoka’a, Lihue, and Hilo, Hawaii (T.H.)

Professional Memberships

Past Affiliations

Senior Research Associate, Wiener Lab., American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Athens, Greece (1999-2000)
Affiliate Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Geological (now Earth) Observatory of Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (1986-1990)
Short-term Visiting Fellow, Smithsonian Inst., Washington, DC (1990)
Curator and Director, Core Lab., Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (1974-1986)
Visiting Researcher, Universita deglia Studia di Milano, Milano, Italy (1988-1989)
Editor, Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX (1988-1989)
Sedimentologist, Deep-Sea Drilling Program, Scripps Inst. Oceanography, La Jolla, CA (1973)
Reader, Marine Biological Lab., Woods Hole, MA (intermittent 1984-1996)
Visiting Researcher/Graduate Fellow/Assistant Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Woods Hole, MA (1966-1974)
Post Doctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Inst., Washington, DC (1973-1974)
Junior Geophysicist, Hawaii Inst. Geophysics, Univ. Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (1965-1966)

Current Research Interests

Mediterranean:

• geoarchaeological and geophysical surveys on Thera and at the Palaikastro (Crete) archaeological site (Greece)
• volcanology and regional effects of the Late Bronze Age eruption of Thera (Greece) in the eastern

Mediterranean region

• paleoclimate of the eastern Mediterranean region
• sedimentology of tsunami deposits (Greece, Itlay, Turkey)
• marine geological and geophysical surveys of the Aegean and Mediterranean sea-floor

Hawaii:

• sedimentology of tsunami deposits
• production of hyaloclastites (black sand) by active lava flow entry into the ocean
• geoarchaeological and geophysical surveys

Past Research Experience and Interests

on land:

• geophysical & geological surveys in Hawaii, Massachusetts, California, Society Is., Fiji, Samoa and Greece
• volcanology of the islands of Ta'u, Ofu and Olosega (Manu'a Group. Samoa), as well as all the Hawaiian Islands

at sea:

• numerous oceanographic cruises, as chief scientist and scientist, in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and in the Mediterranean, Red, Aegean and Caribbean Seas, on ships from the U.S. (Chain, Atlantis II, Alvin, Knorr, Vema, Eastward, Spencer F. Baird, Argo, Moana Wave, Territu), Italy (Bannock) and Israel (Shikmona)
• two cruises, Deep-Sea Drilling Project (Glomar Challenger), Legs 39 & 47
• two cruises, Ocean Drilling Program (Resolution SEDCO BP 471), Legs 107 & 125

Media Coverage

television:

• The Learning Channel (TLC)/Archaeology Magazine - "The Lost Aegean"
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) - "Atlantis"
• National Network of Norway - "The Eruption of Thera"
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) - "Ancient Apocalypse"
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) – “Moses, the Exodus and the Eruption of Thera”
• Discovery – “The Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece” [in production]

magazines

• National Geographic (December, 1982; July, 2000)
• National Geographic World (October, 1983)
• Archaeology (May/June, 1990)
• Technology Review (MIT) (February/March, 1994)
• Athenian (November, 1989)
• Earthwatch (March/April, 1992)
• POB (Point of Beginning - Surveying) (September, 1996)
• Vogue (June, 1994)
• Islands (July/August, 1994)

newspapers:

• New York Times (Oct. 21, 2003) “It Swallowed a Civilization”
• newspapers subscribing to the NY Times wire service “It Swallowed a Civilization”
• International Herald Tribune (Oct. 29, 2003)
• Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Oct. 23, 2003) “Volcanic Holocaust Crippled a Civilization”
• Politiken (Copenhagen; Nov. 2, 2003) “The Volcano that Swallowed an Ancient Civilization”
• Ta Nea (Athens , Greece; June 5, 2003) “Ekrixe ’exaerwse’ nesake teV SantorineV”
• additional newspapers in Las Vegas (NV), Palo Alto (CA), Rockland (NY) (1982-1995)

Lectures on Research Programs

Boston Museum of Science Earthwatch
National Geographic Society Univ. of Georgia
Univ. of Athens [Greece] Long Island Univ.
Lehigh Univ. Univ. of Milano [Italy]
Univ. of Massachusetts Rutgers Univ.
Univ. Texas at Arlington City College of New York
Vassar College College of the Virgin Islands
Wright Paterson Junior College Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa
American School of Classical Studies at Athens [Greece] Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club
East Crete Study Center [Greece] Windward Community College
Archaeological Soc. of America/Honolulu Acad. of Arts Kailua Historical Society
Univ. of Aarhus (Denmark)

Professional/Community Relationships/Honors (last five years only)

• 2003 – invited keynote speaker: American Institute of Architects; Waikaloa, Big Island; on geological and archaeological contexts of extreme environments (such as volcanism);
• 2002 - Malcolm H. Wiener Annual Lecture at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens; on the geoarchaeology of the Late Bronze Age Eruption of Santorini;
• 2001 – Archaeological Institute of America lecture series; “The Mega-Eruption of Thera (Santorini, Greece) in the Late Bronze Age and the Minoan/Mycenaean Transition”;
• 1999 – Summer Lecture Series, INSTAP Study Center for East Crete; “The LBA Eruption of Thera and Its Aegean Consequences”;
• 1998 – invited to be one of the Sigma Xi national lecturers (declined because of teaching obligations);
• 1998 – President, Hawaii Chapter, Sigma Xi International Scientific Honorary Society
• 1998 – present, Vice President and member, Board of Directors, Associated Scientists at Woods Hole (one of the four major research organizations here);
• 1995 – present, member, Board of Directors, Waikalualoko Fishpond Presevation Society, Kaneohe, HI.

Publications

Summary:

• professional peer-reviewed papers = 88
• scientific articles, review, reports (non-peer reviewed) = 31
• professional scientific maps = 11
• co-editor, scientific volume of papers on "Volcanic Hazards and Disasters in Human Antiquity" (Geol. Soc. Am.)
• scientific abstracts = 85
• popular magazine articles = 6 (Archaeology, Athenian, Sail, Oceans, Natl. Geographic World, Ranger Rick)
• popular books = 6 (fiction, young adult book series with Bantam Books [US] and Granada [UK])

peer-reviewed publications (last five years only):

McCoy, F. W. and Maynard, S., 2002, Geoscience Partnerships for Undergraduate Students in the Pacific – The Marine Option Program at the University of Hawaii [abst.]; Geological Society of America, Programs with Abstracts, v. 34 (6): 524.

McCoy, F. W. and Dunn, S., 2002, Modelling the Climatic Effects fo the LBA Eruption of Thera: New Calculations of Tephra Volumes May Suggest a Significantly Larger Eruption than Previously Reported [abst.]; Proceedings of the Chapman Conference on Volcanism and the Earth’s Atmosphere, Am. Geophysical Union, Santorini, Greece: 21-22.

McCoy, F.W., 2001, Seafloor Sediment: Geologic Map of the Circum-Pacific Region, Pacific Basin Sheet (1:17,000,000); Circum-Pacific Map Council, U.S. Geological Survey.

McCoy, F.W., 2001, Geoarchaeology of Thera and the LBA Eruption [abst.]; Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute of America, Annual Meeting, San Diego.

McCoy, F. W. and Heiken, G., 2000, Introduction, in, McCoy, F. W. and Heiken, G., editors, Volcanic Hazards and Disasters in Human Antiquity, Geological Society of America, Special Paper No. 345: v-vi.

McCoy, F. W. and Heiken, G., 2000, The Late Bronze Age Explosive Eruption of Thera (Santorini), Greece: Regional and Local Effects, in, McCoy, F. W. and Heiken, G., editors, Volcanic Hazards and Disasters in Human Antiquity, Geological Society of America, Special Paper No. 345: 43-70.

McCoy, F. W. and Heiken, G., 2000, Tsunami Generated by the Late Bronze Age Eruption of Thera (Santorini), Greece; Pure and Applied Geophysics, v.157:1227-1256.

McCoy, F.W., Synolakis, C. and Papadopoulos, G. 2000, Tsunami Generated by the LBA Eruption of Thera – Evidence from Modelling and Sedimentary Deposits [abst.]; EOS Transactions, Am. Geophysical Union v. 81 (48): F1224.

McCoy, F.W., 1999, Seafloor Sediment: Mineral Resources Map of the Circum-Pacific Region, Northwest Quadrant (1:10,000); Circum-Pacific Map Council, U.S. Geological Survey.