1452/1453 mystery eruption

Unidentified volcanic eruption December 2023 A mysterious volcanic eruption in 1452 or 1453 triggered the first large sulfate spike in the 1450s, succeeded by another spike in 1458 caused by another mysterious eruption.Christopher T. Plummer M. A. J. Curran Tas D. van Ommen S.O. Rasmussen A. D. Moy Tessa R. Vance Clausen H. B. Vinther Bo M. Mayewski P. A. Climate of the Past Discussions 8 1567–1590 2012-05-01 10.5194/cpd-8-1567-2012 An independently dated 2000-yr volcanic record from Law Dome, East Antarctica, including a new perspective on the dating of the c. 1450s eruption of Kuwae, Vanuatu https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258612996 free Jihong Cole-Dai David G. Ferris Alyson L. Lanciki Joël Savarino Mark H. Thiemens Joseph R. McConnell Two likely stratospheric volcanic eruptions in the 1450s C.E. found in a bipolar, subannually dated 800 year ice core record Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 118 7459–7466 2013-07-17 14 10.1002/jgrd.50587 2013JGRD..118.7459C 129790360 free The eruption caused a severe volcanic winter, leading to one of the strongest cooling events in the Northern Hemisphere.Briffa K. R. Jones P. D. Schweingruber F. H. Osborn T. J. 1998 Influence of volcanic eruptions on Northern Hemisphere summer temperature over the past 600 years https://www.nature.com/articles/30943 Nature en 393 6684 450–455 10.1038/30943 1998Natur.393..450B 4392636 1476-4687 subscription 17 January 2023 17 January 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230117110748/https://www.nature.com/articles/30943 live This date also coincides with a substantial intensification of the Little Ice Age.Miller Gifford H. Geirsdóttir Áslaug Zhong Yafang Larsen Darren J. Otto-Bliesner Bette L. Holland Marika M. Bailey David A. Refsnider Kurt A. Lehman Scott J. Southon John R. Anderson Chance Björnsson Helgi Thordarson Thorvaldur 2012 Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks: LITTLE ICE AGE TRIGGERED BY VOLCANISM Geophysical Research Letters en 39 2 n/a 10.1029/2011GL050168 15313398 free 2012GeoRL..39.2708M Date of sulfate spike Early evidence of a large eruption in 1450–1460 came from a massive sulfate spike recorded in ice cores in Antarctica with dating uncertainty up to a few years. Early studies in the 1990s and 2000sRuth U. Barnola J.-M. Beer J. Bigler M. Blunier T. Castellano E. Fischer H. Fundel F. Huybrechts P. Kaufmann P. Kipfstuhl S. Lambrecht A. Morganti A. Oerter H. Parrenin F. 2007-08-07 "EDML1": a chronology for the EPICA deep ice core from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, over the last 150 000 years https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/3/475/2007/ Climate of the Past English 3 3 475–484 10.5194/cp-3-475-2007 2007CliPa...3..475R 131418894 1814-9324 free 17 January 2023 17 January 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230117110749/https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/3/475/2007/ live Gao Chaochao Robock Alan Self Stephen Witter Jeffrey B. Steffenson J. P. Clausen Henrik Brink Siggaard-Andersen Marie-Louise Johnsen Sigfus Mayewski Paul A. Ammann Caspar 2006 The 1452 or 1453 A.D. Kuwae eruption signal derived from multiple ice core records: Greatest volcanic sulfate event of the past 700 years Journal of Geophysical Research en 111 D12 D12107 10.1029/2005JD006710 2006JGRD..11112107G 0148-0227 free incorrectly placed the date of this original sulfate spike in 1452/53 on the basis of high dating uncertainty while the Kuwae caldera in Vanuatu was assigned to be the source of this incorrectly dated sulfate spike. Since 2012, high-resolution sulfate records based on accurately dated ice cores shifted the date of the previously discovered sulfate event, which was possibly caused by a Kuwae eruption, to 1458 and confirmed another sulfate event in 1452/53.Sigl Michael McConnell Joseph R. Layman Lawrence Maselli Olivia McGwire Ken Pasteris Daniel Dahl-Jensen Dorthe Steffensen Jørgen Peder Vinther Bo Edwards Ross Mulvaney Robert Kipfstuhl Sepp 2013-02-16 A new bipolar ice core record of volcanism from WAIS Divide and NEEM and implications for climate forcing of the last 2000 years: A 2000YR BIPOLAR VOLCANO RECORD http://doi.wiley.com/10.1029/2012JD018603 Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres en 118 3 1151–1169 10.1029/2012JD018603 130773456 Cole-Dai Jihong Ferris David G. Lanciki Alyson L. Savarino Joël Thiemens Mark H. McConnell Joseph R. 2013-07-27 Two likely stratospheric volcanic eruptions in the 1450s C.E. found in a bipolar, subannually dated 800 year ice core record: TWO VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE 1450s Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres en 118 14 7459–7466 10.1002/jgrd.50587 2013JGRD..118.7459C 129790360 free Abbott Peter M. Plunkett Gill Corona Christophe Chellman Nathan J. McConnell Joseph R. Pilcher John R. Stoffel Markus Sigl Michael 2021-03-04 Cryptotephra from the Icelandic Veiðivötn 1477 CE eruption in a Greenland ice core: confirming the dating of volcanic events in the 1450s CE and assessing the eruption's climatic impact https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/17/565/2021/ Climate of the Past English 17 2 565–585 10.5194/cp-17-565-2021 2021CliPa..17..565A 233267071 1814-9324 free 17 January 2023 17 January 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230117110748/https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/17/565/2021/ live Ice-core and tree-ring records The 1452/53 sulfate spike is recorded in both Greenland and Antarctica, but the sulfate signal in Greenland is significantly larger than that of Antarctica, suggesting a source volcano in the low latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Sulfur isotope composition of the 1452/53 sulfate indicates that the eruption emitted volcanic gases directly into the stratosphere, with significant impact on atmospheric chemistry and potential consequence for global climate. The reconstructed volcanic stratospheric sulfur injection of the 1452/53 event estimates that about 11 megatons of sulfur was injected into the stratosphere, roughly one-third that of the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, based on the same set of sulfate records.Sigl Michael Toohey Matthew McConnell Joseph R. Cole-Dai Jihong Severi Mirko 2022-07-12 Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth during the Holocene (past 11500 years) from a bipolar ice-core array https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/3167/2022/ Earth System Science Data en 14 7 3167–3196 10.5194/essd-14-3167-2022 2022ESSD...14.3167S 1866-3516 free 17 January 2023 17 January 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230117110752/https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/3167/2022/ live Sigl Michael Toohey Matthew McConnell Joseph R. Cole-Dai Jihong Severi Mirko 2021-03-02 HolVol: Reconstructed volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth for the Holocene (9500 BCE to 1900 CE) Pangaea https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.928646 en 10.1594/PANGAEA.928646 17 January 2023 17 January 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230117110749/https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.928646 live The 1450s eruptions have been linked with the second pulse of the Little Ice Age, which had started two centuries earlier with the Samalas eruptionLavigne F. Degeai J.-P. Komorowski J.-C. Guillet S. Robert V. Lahitte P. Oppenheimer C. Stoffel M. Vidal C. M. Surono Pratomo I. 2013-10-15 Source of the great A.D. 1257 mystery eruption unveiled, Samalas volcano, Rinjani Volcanic Complex, Indonesia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences en 110 42 16742–16747 2013PNAS..11016742L 10.1073/pnas.1307520110 0027-8424 3801080 24082132 free and three other unidentified eruptions.Miller G. H. etal Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks Geophysical Research Letters 39 2 January 31, 2012 10.1029/2011GL050168 free 2012GeoRL..39.2708M Following the eruption, tree-ring evidence revealed an exceptional cooling in 1453 summer, ranged from a reduction of 0.4 C-change in the Swiss Alps to a reduction of 6.9 C-change in the Polar Urals.Esper Jan Büntgen Ulf Hartl-Meier Claudia Oppenheimer Clive Schneider Lea 2017-05-06 Northern Hemisphere temperature anomalies during the 1450s period of ambiguous volcanic forcing https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-017-1125-9 Bulletin of Volcanology en 79 6 41 10.1007/s00445-017-1125-9 2017BVol...79...41E 133844199 1432-0819 A study by Dr Kevin Pang of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory drew on evidence found in tree rings, ice cores and in the historic records of civilizations in Europe and China. Oak panels of British portrait paintings had abnormally narrow rings in 1453–1455. In Sweden, grain tithes fell to zero as the crops failed. Bristlecone pines of the Western United States show frost damage in 1453. The growth of European and Chinese trees was stunted in 1453–1457.6 December 1993 For immediate release https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/93/release_1993_1543.html 25 August 2006 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 22 February 2003 https://web.archive.org/web/20030222161450/https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/93/release_1993_1543.html dead Source of eruption The 1452/1453 eruption has been associated with a volcanic eruption in Kuwae in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, but in 2012 the Kuwae eruption was re-dated to 1458. Kuwae is also thought unlikely because sulfate deposits associated with the earlier eruption are much higher in Greenland ice cores than those in Antarctica, which suggests that the source volcano is located in the Northern Hemisphere. Lack of tephra discoveries associated with the 1452/53 sulfate layer has prevented identification using geochemical matching. Historical records Mexican codices describe autumn frosts in 1453 that affected agriculture throughout central Mexico.Matthew Therrell David W. Stahle Rodolfo Acuña Soto Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 85 9 1263–1272 2004 Aztec Drought and the 'Curse of One Rabbit' 10.1175/BAMS-85-9-1263 2004BAMS...85.1263T 123560837 free According to the history of the Ming dynasty in China in the spring of 1453, "nonstop snow damaged wheat crops". Later that year, as the dust obscured the sunlight, "several feet of snow fell in six provinces; tens of thousands of people froze to death".JPL Confirms 15th Century Volcanic Eruption https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-confirms-15th-century-volcanic-eruption/ 2026-05-01 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) en-US Early in 1454, "it snowed for 40 days south of the Yangtze River and countless died of cold and famine". Lakes and rivers were frozen, and the Yellow Sea was icebound out to 20 km on from shore. The eruption occurred just before the fall of Constantinople, the last bastion of the once-mighty Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Turks, led by Sultan Mehmed II, laid siege to the city on 5 April 1453 and conquered it on 29 May 1453. Pang found mention of the volcano's after-effects in chronicles of the empire's last days. Historians noted that the city's gardens, that spring, produced very little. On the night of 22 May 1453, the moon, the symbol of Constantinople, rose in dark eclipse, fulfilling a prophecy of the city's demise. On 25 May 1453, a thunderstorm burst on the city: "It was impossible to stand up against the hail, and the rain came down in such torrents that whole streets were flooded". The next day, on 26 May 1453, the whole city was blotted out by a thick fog, a condition that was completely unheard of in the area at that time of year. Pang reported that when the fog lifted that evening, "flames engulfed the dome of the Hagia Sophia, and lights, too, could be seen from the walls, glimmering in the distant countryside far behind the Turkish camp (to the west)". Residents of the city thought the strange light was from reflection from a fire set by the Turkish attackers. However, that the "fire" was an optical illusion by the reflection of intensely red twilight glow by clouds of volcanic ash high in the atmosphere. Many such false fire alarms were reported worldwide after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia. While Pang may be inaccurate in saying "I conclude that Kuwae erupted in early 1453 ... The residual volcanic cloud could have made the apocalyptic June 1456 apparition of the Comet Halley look 'red' with a 'golden' tail, as reported by contemporary astronomers", the events described could be due to the aftermath of volcanic eruptions; it is just not clear which ones. See also Extreme weather events of 535–536 Timeline of volcanism on Earth Year Without a Summer 1808 mystery eruption References Further reading Witter J B Self S 2007 The Kuwae (Vanuatu) eruption of AD 1452: potential magnitude and volatile release Bulletin of Volcanology 69 3 301–318 10.1007/s00445-006-0075-4 2007BVol...69..301W 129403009 http://www.nhrl.unsw.edu.au/research/projectvanuatu.html Research project—Geological Evidence and Oral History of Tsunamis in Vanuatu UNSW Australian Tsunami Research Centre dead https://web.archive.org/web/20110219155632/http://www.nhrl.unsw.edu.au/research/projectvanuatu.html 2011-02-19 Category:15th-century volcanic events Category:VEI-6 eruptions Category:Volcanic winters Category:Fall of Constantinople Category:Hagia Sophia Category:1452 Category:1453 Category:Mystery eruptions