No evidence for tephra in Greenland from the historic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE: Implications for geochronology and paleoclimatology
Volcanic signatures archived 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 o...
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:10670/1.87iq52 2023-05-15T16:26:47+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 Tomlinson, Emma Toohey, Matthew McConnell, Joseph R. Pilcher, Jonathan R. Hasegawa, Takeshi Siebe, Claus 2021-06-16 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2021-63 https://cp.copernicus.org/preprints/cp-2021-63/ en eng doi:10.5194/cp-2021-63 10670/1.87iq52 https://cp.copernicus.org/preprints/cp-2021-63/ undefined Geographica Helvetica - geography eISSN: 1814-9332 geo envir Text https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_18cf/ 2021 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2021-63 2023-01-22T18:20:52Z Volcanic signatures archived 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 dating 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. Text Greenland Greenland ice core ice core Unknown Greenland |
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geo envir Plunkett, Gill Sigl, Michael Schwaiger, Hans Tomlinson, Emma 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 |
geo envir |
description |
Volcanic signatures archived 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 dating 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 |
Text |
author |
Plunkett, Gill Sigl, Michael Schwaiger, Hans Tomlinson, Emma Toohey, Matthew McConnell, Joseph R. Pilcher, Jonathan R. Hasegawa, Takeshi Siebe, Claus |
author_facet |
Plunkett, Gill Sigl, Michael Schwaiger, Hans Tomlinson, Emma 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 |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2021-63 https://cp.copernicus.org/preprints/cp-2021-63/ |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
genre_facet |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core |
op_source |
Geographica Helvetica - geography eISSN: 1814-9332 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/cp-2021-63 10670/1.87iq52 https://cp.copernicus.org/preprints/cp-2021-63/ |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2021-63 |
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1766015756865110016 |