The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century?
One of the largest climate forcing eruptions of the nineteenth century was, until recently, believed to have taken place at the Babuyan Claro volcano, in the Philippines, in 1831. However, a recent investigation found no reliable evidence of such an eruption, suggesting that the 1831 eruption must h...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:cp95727 2023-05-15T16:30:22+02:00 The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? Garrison, Christopher Kilburn, Christopher Smart, David Edwards, Stephen 2021-12-20 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/17/2607/2021/ eng eng doi:10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/17/2607/2021/ eISSN: 1814-9332 Text 2021 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021 2021-12-27T17:22:18Z One of the largest climate forcing eruptions of the nineteenth century was, until recently, believed to have taken place at the Babuyan Claro volcano, in the Philippines, in 1831. However, a recent investigation found no reliable evidence of such an eruption, suggesting that the 1831 eruption must have taken place elsewhere. We here present our newly compiled dataset of reported observations of a blue, purple and green sun in August 1831, which we use to reconstruct the transport of a stratospheric aerosol plume from that eruption. The source of the aerosol plume is identified as the eruption of Ferdinandea, which took place about 50 km off the south-west coast of Sicily (37.1 ∘ N, 12.7 ∘ E), in July and August 1831. The modest magnitude of this eruption, assigned a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 3, has commonly caused it to be discounted or overlooked when identifying the likely source of the stratospheric sulfate aerosol in 1831. It is proposed, however, that convective instability in the troposphere contributed to aerosol reaching the stratosphere and that the aerosol load was enhanced by addition of a sedimentary sulfur component to the volcanic plume. Thus, one of the largest climate forcing volcanic eruptions of the nineteenth century would effectively have been hiding in plain sight, arguably “lowering the bar” for the types of eruptions capable of having a substantial climate forcing impact. Prior estimates of the mass of stratospheric sulfate aerosol responsible for the 1831 Greenland ice core sulfate deposition peaks which have assumed a source eruption at a low-latitude site will, therefore, have been overstated. The example presented in this paper serves as a useful reminder that VEI values were not intended to be reliably correlated with eruption sulfur yields unless supplemented with compositional analyses. It also underlines that eye-witness accounts of historical geophysical events should not be neglected as a source of valuable scientific data. Text Greenland Greenland ice core ice core Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Claro ENVELOPE(-63.383,-63.383,-64.250,-64.250) Greenland Climate of the Past 17 6 2607 2632 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
One of the largest climate forcing eruptions of the nineteenth century was, until recently, believed to have taken place at the Babuyan Claro volcano, in the Philippines, in 1831. However, a recent investigation found no reliable evidence of such an eruption, suggesting that the 1831 eruption must have taken place elsewhere. We here present our newly compiled dataset of reported observations of a blue, purple and green sun in August 1831, which we use to reconstruct the transport of a stratospheric aerosol plume from that eruption. The source of the aerosol plume is identified as the eruption of Ferdinandea, which took place about 50 km off the south-west coast of Sicily (37.1 ∘ N, 12.7 ∘ E), in July and August 1831. The modest magnitude of this eruption, assigned a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 3, has commonly caused it to be discounted or overlooked when identifying the likely source of the stratospheric sulfate aerosol in 1831. It is proposed, however, that convective instability in the troposphere contributed to aerosol reaching the stratosphere and that the aerosol load was enhanced by addition of a sedimentary sulfur component to the volcanic plume. Thus, one of the largest climate forcing volcanic eruptions of the nineteenth century would effectively have been hiding in plain sight, arguably “lowering the bar” for the types of eruptions capable of having a substantial climate forcing impact. Prior estimates of the mass of stratospheric sulfate aerosol responsible for the 1831 Greenland ice core sulfate deposition peaks which have assumed a source eruption at a low-latitude site will, therefore, have been overstated. The example presented in this paper serves as a useful reminder that VEI values were not intended to be reliably correlated with eruption sulfur yields unless supplemented with compositional analyses. It also underlines that eye-witness accounts of historical geophysical events should not be neglected as a source of valuable scientific data. |
format |
Text |
author |
Garrison, Christopher Kilburn, Christopher Smart, David Edwards, Stephen |
spellingShingle |
Garrison, Christopher Kilburn, Christopher Smart, David Edwards, Stephen The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? |
author_facet |
Garrison, Christopher Kilburn, Christopher Smart, David Edwards, Stephen |
author_sort |
Garrison, Christopher |
title |
The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? |
title_short |
The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? |
title_full |
The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? |
title_fullStr |
The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? |
title_full_unstemmed |
The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? |
title_sort |
blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of ferdinandea, near sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century? |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/17/2607/2021/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-63.383,-63.383,-64.250,-64.250) |
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Claro Greenland |
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Claro Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
genre_facet |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
op_source |
eISSN: 1814-9332 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/17/2607/2021/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021 |
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Climate of the Past |
container_volume |
17 |
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6 |
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2607 |
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2632 |
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