street-food: Year Without a Summer

Evidence: 25 • authority: 80

Huge volcanic eruption didn’t cause climate change and mass extinction 140 million years ago

Evidence: — • authority: 72

An unexplained volcanic eruption is a major volcanic event known primarily through indirect evidence such as sulfate spikes in polar ice cores, tree ring anomalies, and historical climate impacts. They are sometimes referred to as mystery volcanic eruptions because the exact source of the material is unknown. Because evidence for them is indirect, precise details are unknown, but some of these events were later identified through further research. These eruptions can have significant climate impacts by creating a volcanic winter event where material from the eruption decreases the amount of solar energy reaching the earth for a period. These global cooling episodes can have significant soci…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, sulfur-rich, particularly explosive volcanic eruption. Climate effects are primarily dependent upon the amount of injection of SO2 and H2S into the stratosphere where they react with OH and H2O to form H2SO4 on a timescale of a week, and the resulting H2SO4 aerosols produce the dominant radiative effect. Volcanic stratospheric aerosols cool the surface by reflecting solar radiation and warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation for several years. Moreover, the cooling trend can be…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Year 536 (DXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the Roman Empire as the Year after the Consulship of Belisarius. In 2018, medieval scholar Michael McCormick nominated this year as "the worst year to be alive" because of the volcanic winter of 536 caused by a volcanic eruption early in the year, causing average temperatures in Europe and China to decline and resulting in crop failures and famine for well over a year.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The volcanic winter of 536 was among the most severe and protracted episodes of climatic cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last two thousand years. The volcanic winter was caused by at least three eruptions of uncertain origin, with several possible locations proposed in various continents. In early AD 536 (or possibly late 535), an eruption ejected great amounts of sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, reducing the solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface and cooling the atmosphere for several years. In March 536, Constantinople began experiencing darkened skies and lower temperatures. Summer temperatures in 536 fell by as much as 2.5 °C (4.5 °F) below European normal. The ling…

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Possible impact of the 43 BCE Okmok volcanic eruption in Alaska on the climate of China as revealed in historical documents. The Okmok volcanic eruption in Alaska has recently been discovered and is precisely dated to have occurred in 43 BCE. Some Chinese climate records of 43–33 BCE have been found in historical documents that provide descriptions of observed environmental abnormities that appear to be consistent with the anticipated changes due to volcanic climate forcing. In this paper, we provide a full translation with discussions of the Chinese climate records that may be related to the Okmok eruption. We have converted ancient Chinese calendar dates to modern Gregorian dates and prov…

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Simulation of ash clouds after a Laacher See-type eruption. Dated to approximately 13 000 years ago, the Laacher See (East Eifel volcanic zone) eruption was one of the largest midlatitude Northern Hemisphere volcanic events of the Late Pleistocene. This eruptive event not only impacted local environments and human communities but probably also affected Northern Hemispheric climate. To better understand the impact of a Laacher See-type eruption on NH circulation and climate, we have simulated the evolution of its fine ash and sulfur cloud with an interactive stratospheric aerosol model. Our experiments are based around a central estimate for the Laacher See aerosol cloud of 15 Tg of sulfur d…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1 °F). Summer temperatures in Europe that year were the coldest of any on record between 1766 and 2000, resulting in crop failures and major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere. Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) in April 1815. This eruption was the largest in at least 1,300 years (after the hypothesized eruption causing the volcanic winter of 536); its effect on the climate may have b…