 For example, some have claimed that the parting of the Red Sea and the Biblical plagues were natural events caused by a single natural disaster, a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BC.Carl Drews, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States, has suggested that the Biblical Red Sea crossing "reflect[s] a real historical occurrence," namely, a natural phenomenon known as a "wind setdown" that has been observed to affect bodies of water.He conjectures that such a phenomenon could have created a land path through the Eastern Nile Delta (but not the Red Sea).