Multi-proxy dating the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan to late 946 CE ...

Ranking among the largest volcanic eruptions of the Common Era (CE), the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan produced a widely-dispersed tephra layer (known as the B-Tm ash), which represents an important tie point for palaeoenvironmental studies in East Asia. Hitherto, there has been no consensus...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Oppenheimer, C, Wacker, L, Xu, J, Galván, JD, Stoffel, M, Guillet, S, Corona, C, Sigl, M, Di Cosmo, N, Hajdas, I, Pan, B, Breuker, R, Schneider, L, Esper, J, Fei, J, Hammond, JOS, Büntgen, U
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2017
Subjects:
Holocene
paleoclimatology
Eastern Asia
cosmogenic isotopes
ice cores
tree-rings
Greenland
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.8202
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/262913
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Summary:Ranking among the largest volcanic eruptions of the Common Era (CE), the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan produced a widely-dispersed tephra layer (known as the B-Tm ash), which represents an important tie point for palaeoenvironmental studies in East Asia. Hitherto, there has been no consensus on its age, with estimates spanning at least the tenth century CE. Here, we identify the cosmogenic radiocarbon signal of 775 CE in a subfossil larch engulfed and killed by pyroclastic currents emplaced during the initial rhyolitic phase of the explosive eruption. Combined with glaciochemical evidence from Greenland, this enables us to date the eruption to late 946 CE. This secure date rules out the possibility that the Millennium Eruption contributed to the collapse of the Bohai Kingdom (Manchuria/Korea) in 926 CE, as has previously been hypothesised. Further, despite the magnitude of the eruption, we do not see a consequent cooling signal in tree-ring-based reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere summer ...

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