Decadal-to-centennial increases of volcanic aerosols from Iceland challenge the concept of a Medieval Quiet Period

Existing global volcanic radiative aerosol forcing estimates portray the period 700 to 1000 as volcanically quiescent, void of major volcanic eruptions. However, this disagrees with proximal Icelandic geological records and regional Greenland ice-core records of sulfate. Here, we use cryptotephra an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications Earth & Environment
Main Authors: Gabriel, Imogen, Plunkett, Gill, Abbott, Peter M., Behrans, Melanie, Burke, Andrea, Chellman, Nathan, Cook, Eliza, Fleitmann, Dominik, Hörhold, Maria, Hutchison, William, McConnell, Joseph R., Óladóttir, Bergrún A., Preiser-Kapeller, Johannes, Sliwinski, Jakub T., Sugden, Patrick, Twarloh, Birthe, Sigl, Michael
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
name=SDG 13 - Climate Action
Greenland
Greenland ice core
Greenland ice cores
ice core
Iceland
Online Access:https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/9383dc68-63a4-49bd-8b67-3a9ce25e617e
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01350-6
https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/files/580190895/s43247-024-01350-6.pdf
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Summary:Existing global volcanic radiative aerosol forcing estimates portray the period 700 to 1000 as volcanically quiescent, void of major volcanic eruptions. However, this disagrees with proximal Icelandic geological records and regional Greenland ice-core records of sulfate. Here, we use cryptotephra analyses, high-resolution sulfur isotope analyses, and glaciochemical volcanic tracers on an array of Greenland ice cores to characterise volcanic activity and climatically important sulfuric aerosols across the period 700 to 1000. We identify a prolonged episode of volcanic sulfur dioxide emissions (751–940) dominated by Icelandic volcanism, that we term the Icelandic Active Period. This period commences with the Hrafnkatla episode (751–763), which coincided with strong winter cooling anomalies across Europe. This study reveals an important contribution of prolonged volcanic sulfate emissions to the pre-industrial atmospheric aerosol burden, currently not considered in existing forcing estimates, and highlights the need for further research to disentangle their associated climate feedbacks.

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