What is it about?
One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the nineteenth century took place in 1831 CE. Although this event led to significant Northern Hemisphere climate cooling, the source of this eruption remains a mystery. Using evidence from well-dated ice cores and stratigraphic records we pinpoint Zavaritskii caldera, an extremely remote volcano located in the Kuril Islands (between Japan and Kamchatka), as the source of this eruption. By reconstructing its magnitude and radiative forcing we show that Zavaritskii can account for the climate cooling in 1831–1833 CE. These data provide a compelling candidate for this large-magnitude mystery eruption and demonstrate the climate-changing potential of these remote yet highly significant Kuril Island volcanoes.
Featured Image
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The volcano responsible for this mystery eruption is extremely remote, no one is monitoring it, and yet it had global impact on climate. There are so many volcanoes like this and so it shows how difficult it will be to predict when or where the next large magnitude eruption might come. We have a coordinated international mission to kick in to gear when the next big one happens and that is something we need to think about as society.
Perspectives
This was a fun detective story to be involved in. The moment in the lab analysing the two ashes together (one from the volcano and one from the ice core) was a genuine eureka moment. I couldn’t believe the numbers were identical.
William Hutchison
University of St Andrews
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The 1831 CE mystery eruption identified as Zavaritskii caldera, Simushir Island (Kurils), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, December 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2416699122.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page