The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. ...

• Main Authors: Oppenheimer, Clive, Orchard, Andy, Stoffel, Markus, Newfield, Timothy P, Guillet, Sébastien, Corona, Christophe, Sigl, Michael, Di Cosmo, Nicola, Büntgen, Ulf
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2018
• Subjects: 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; Eldgjá; Greenland; Iceland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.20799; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/275940

The Eldgjá lava flood is considered Iceland's largest volcanic eruption of the Common Era. While it is well established that it occurred after the Settlement of Iceland (circa 874 CE), the date of this great event has remained uncertain. This has hampered investigation of the eruption's impacts, if any, on climate and society. Here, we use high-temporal resolution glaciochemical records from Greenland to show that the eruption began in spring 939 CE and continued, at least episodically, until at least autumn 940 CE. Contemporary chronicles identify the spread of a remarkable haze in 939 CE, and tree ring-based reconstructions reveal pronounced northern hemisphere summer cooling in 940 CE, consistent with the eruption's high yield of sulphur to the atmosphere. Consecutive severe winters and privations may also be associated with climatic effects of the volcanic aerosol veil. Iceland's formal conversion to Christianity dates to 999/1000 CE, within two generations or so of the Eldgjá eruption. The end of the ...