Quantifying gas emissions from the "Millennium Eruption" of Paektu volcano, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea/China

• Main Authors: Iacovino, K, Ju-Song, K, Sisson, T, Lowenstern, J, Kuk-Hun, R, Jong-Nam, J, Kun-Ho, S, Song-Hwan, H, Oppenheimer, Clive, Hammond, JOS, Donovan, Amy, Liu, KW, Kum-Ran, R
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2016
• Subjects: volcanic gas emissions; volatiles; Paektu; Millennium Eruption; melt inclusions; Greenland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.7080; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/261859

Paektu volcano (Changbaishan) is a rhyolitic caldera that straddles the border between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and China. Its most recent large eruption was the Millennium Eruption (ME; 23 km$^{3}$ dense rock equivalent) circa 946 CE, which resulted in the release of copious magmatic volatiles (H$_{2}$O, CO$_{2}$, sulfur, and halogens). Accurate quantification of volatile yield and composition is critical in assessing volcanogenic climate impacts but is challenging, particularly for events before the satellite era. We use a geochemical technique to quantify volatile composition and upper bounds to yields for the ME by examining trends in incompatible trace and volatile element concentrations in crystal-hosted melt inclusions. We estimate that the ME could have emitted as much as 45 Tg of S to the atmosphere. This is greater than the quantity of S released by the 1815 eruption of Tambora, which contributed to the “year without a summer.” Our maximum gas yield estimates place the ME among the strongest emitters of climate-forcing gases in the Common Era. However, ice cores from Greenland record only a relatively weak sulfate signal attributed to the ME. We suggest that other factors came into play in minimizing the glaciochemical signature. This paradoxical case in which high S emissions do not result in a strong glacial sulfate signal may present a way forward in building more https://symplectic.admin.cam.ac.uk/objectedit.html?cid=1&oid=876954generalized models for interpreting which volcanic eruptions have produced large climate impacts. : K.I. was supported by the NSF under award no. 1349486 and by AAAS. Fieldwork was supported by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.