Global cooling system Global cooling

2008/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Klima
• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

A terrible volcanic eruption could cool the climate in the sixth century. A group of international researchers have found traces of the eruption in the ice of Greenland and Antarctica. According to the date published in Geophysical Research Letters, the footprint is between 533-536. The chronicles of those years speak of food shortages and cold weather, which could be due to that huge eruption.

The footprint is a thin layer of sulphate ions, derived from sulphur dioxide emitted by a volcano, which has been found in the ice of the northern and southern hemisphere. For this reason, they have reached the conclusion that the eruption occurred near the equator, although they do not know the volcano from which it caused it. In view of the number of tracks, it is believed that it was the most violent eruption of the last 2,000 years.

There are writings that speak of the shortage of bread in Ireland at that time, of the snow fall in summer in China or of the plagues of Asia to Denmark, as well as of the ringed records in which the growth of the trees slowed down. In contrast to these data and the remains of ice, the researchers affirm that the eruptions of a volcano filled with particles the skies of almost everyone and the strength of the sun decreased.