No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology
Volcanic fallout in polar ice sheets provide important opportunities to date and correlate ice-core records as well as to investigate the environmental impacts of eruptions. Only the geochemical characterization of volcanic ash (tephra) embedded in the ice strata can confirm the source of the erupti...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/164632 https://boris.unibe.ch/164632/ |
id |
ftdatacite:10.48350/164632 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdatacite:10.48350/164632 2023-05-15T16:26:54+02:00 No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology Plunkett, Gill Sigl, Michael Schwaiger, Hans F. Tomlinson, Emma L. Toohey, Matthew McConnell, Joseph R. Pilcher, Jonathan R. Hasegawa, Takeshi Siebe, Claus 2022 https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/164632 https://boris.unibe.ch/164632/ unknown Copernicus Publications https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-45-2022 open access Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 CC-BY 530 Physics 550 Earth sciences & geology 930 History of ancient world to ca. 499 article-journal journal article ScholarlyArticle Text 2022 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48350/164632 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-45-2022 2022-03-10T10:47:34Z Volcanic fallout in polar ice sheets provide important opportunities to date and correlate ice-core records as well as to investigate the environmental impacts of eruptions. Only the geochemical characterization of volcanic ash (tephra) embedded in the ice strata can confirm the source of the eruption, however, and is a requisite if historical eruption ages are to be used as valid chronological checks on annual ice layer counting. Here we report the investigation of ash particles in a Greenland ice core that are associated with a volcanic sulfuric acid layer previously attributed to the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius. Major and trace element composition of the particles indicates that the tephra does not derive from Vesuvius but most likely originates from an unidentified eruption in the Aleutian arc. Using ash dispersal modelling, we find that only an eruption large enough to include stratospheric injection is likely to account for the sizeable (24–85 μm) ash particles observed in the Greenland ice at this time. Despite its likely explosivity, this event does not appear to have triggered significant climate perturbations, unlike some other large extra-tropical eruptions. In light of a recent re-evaluation of the Greenland ice-core chronologies, our findings further challenge the previous assignation of this volcanic event to 79 CE. We highlight the need for the revised Common Era ice-core chronology to be formally accepted by the wider ice-core and climate modelling communities in order to ensure robust age linkages to precisely dated historical and paleoclimate proxy records. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Greenland ice core ice core DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
530 Physics 550 Earth sciences & geology 930 History of ancient world to ca. 499 |
spellingShingle |
530 Physics 550 Earth sciences & geology 930 History of ancient world to ca. 499 Plunkett, Gill Sigl, Michael Schwaiger, Hans F. Tomlinson, Emma L. Toohey, Matthew McConnell, Joseph R. Pilcher, Jonathan R. Hasegawa, Takeshi Siebe, Claus No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology |
topic_facet |
530 Physics 550 Earth sciences & geology 930 History of ancient world to ca. 499 |
description |
Volcanic fallout in polar ice sheets provide important opportunities to date and correlate ice-core records as well as to investigate the environmental impacts of eruptions. Only the geochemical characterization of volcanic ash (tephra) embedded in the ice strata can confirm the source of the eruption, however, and is a requisite if historical eruption ages are to be used as valid chronological checks on annual ice layer counting. Here we report the investigation of ash particles in a Greenland ice core that are associated with a volcanic sulfuric acid layer previously attributed to the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius. Major and trace element composition of the particles indicates that the tephra does not derive from Vesuvius but most likely originates from an unidentified eruption in the Aleutian arc. Using ash dispersal modelling, we find that only an eruption large enough to include stratospheric injection is likely to account for the sizeable (24–85 μm) ash particles observed in the Greenland ice at this time. Despite its likely explosivity, this event does not appear to have triggered significant climate perturbations, unlike some other large extra-tropical eruptions. In light of a recent re-evaluation of the Greenland ice-core chronologies, our findings further challenge the previous assignation of this volcanic event to 79 CE. We highlight the need for the revised Common Era ice-core chronology to be formally accepted by the wider ice-core and climate modelling communities in order to ensure robust age linkages to precisely dated historical and paleoclimate proxy records. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Plunkett, Gill Sigl, Michael Schwaiger, Hans F. Tomlinson, Emma L. Toohey, Matthew McConnell, Joseph R. Pilcher, Jonathan R. Hasegawa, Takeshi Siebe, Claus |
author_facet |
Plunkett, Gill Sigl, Michael Schwaiger, Hans F. Tomlinson, Emma L. Toohey, Matthew McConnell, Joseph R. Pilcher, Jonathan R. Hasegawa, Takeshi Siebe, Claus |
author_sort |
Plunkett, Gill |
title |
No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology |
title_short |
No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology |
title_full |
No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology |
title_fullStr |
No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology |
title_full_unstemmed |
No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology |
title_sort |
no evidence for tephra in greenland from the historic eruption of vesuvius in 79 ce: implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/164632 https://boris.unibe.ch/164632/ |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
genre_facet |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-45-2022 |
op_rights |
open access Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48350/164632 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-45-2022 |
_version_ |
1766015913350397952 |