> However, the cloud seems to have stopped at Melos, an island only sixty
> miles
> to the west of Thera. But ashes were deposited hundreds of miles to the
> east. That means the headwinds from the west must have been very strong at
> the
> time, these squalls being a September through November occurrence on the
> Aegean.
This the wrong reasoning. Of course that for the Theran outbursts not having
reachead higher strata would the direction of the wind at the time of the
outburst be important and would redirect them. These "low" outbursts would
also according to the laws of ballistic be also the shortest in the reach of
the volcano. Such ones under the correct angle and powerfull enough to reach
higher strata would be completely independent of the winds and reach more
remote regions.
So what happened on Melos is typical for a "low" shot. The rest depends om
the volcano itself.