Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records
The eruption of Samalas in Indonesia in 1257 ranks among the largest sulfur-rich eruptions of the Common Era with sulfur deposition in ice cores reaching twice the volume of the Tambora eruption in 1815. Sedimentological analyses of deposits confirm the exceptional size of the event, which had both...
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ftunivcam:oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/262757 2024-02-04T10:01:13+01:00 Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records Guillet, S Corona, C Stoffel, M Khodri, M Lavigne, F Ortega, P Eckert, N Sielenou, PD Daux, V Churakova (Sidorova), OV Davi, N Edouard, J-L Zhang, Y Luckman, BH Myglan, VS Guiot, J Beniston, M Masson-Delmotte, V Oppenheimer, C 2017-01-23 application/pdf https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/262757 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.8046 eng eng Nature Publishing Group http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2875 Nature Geoscience https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/262757 doi:10.17863/CAM.8046 37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 3703 Geochemistry 3705 Geology 13 Climate Action Article 2017 ftunivcam https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.8046 2024-01-11T23:25:04Z The eruption of Samalas in Indonesia in 1257 ranks among the largest sulfur-rich eruptions of the Common Era with sulfur deposition in ice cores reaching twice the volume of the Tambora eruption in 1815. Sedimentological analyses of deposits confirm the exceptional size of the event, which had both an eruption magnitude and a volcanic explosivity index of 7. During the Samalas eruption, more than 40 km$^3$ of dense magma was expelled and the eruption column is estimated to have reached altitudes of 43 km. However, the climatic response to the Samalas event is debated since climate model simulations generally predict a stronger and more prolonged surface air cooling of Northern Hemisphere summers than inferred from tree-ring-based temperature reconstructions. Here, we draw on historical archives, ice-core data and tree-ring records to reconstruct the spatial and temporal climate response to the Samalas eruption. We find that 1258 and 1259 experienced some of the coldest Northern Hemisphere summers of the past millennium. However, cooling across the Northern Hemisphere was spatially heterogeneous. Western Europe, Siberia and Japan experienced strong cooling, coinciding with warmer-than-average conditions over Alaska and northern Canada. We suggest that in North America, volcanic radiative forcing was modulated by a positive phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Contemporary records attest to severe famines in England and Japan, but these began prior to the eruption. We conclude that the Samalas eruption aggravated existing crises, but did not trigger the famines. Era.Net RUSplus project ELVECS (SNF project number: IZRPZ0_164735) Article in Journal/Newspaper ice core Alaska Siberia Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository Canada |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcam |
language |
English |
topic |
37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 3703 Geochemistry 3705 Geology 13 Climate Action |
spellingShingle |
37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 3703 Geochemistry 3705 Geology 13 Climate Action Guillet, S Corona, C Stoffel, M Khodri, M Lavigne, F Ortega, P Eckert, N Sielenou, PD Daux, V Churakova (Sidorova), OV Davi, N Edouard, J-L Zhang, Y Luckman, BH Myglan, VS Guiot, J Beniston, M Masson-Delmotte, V Oppenheimer, C Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records |
topic_facet |
37 Earth Sciences 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 3703 Geochemistry 3705 Geology 13 Climate Action |
description |
The eruption of Samalas in Indonesia in 1257 ranks among the largest sulfur-rich eruptions of the Common Era with sulfur deposition in ice cores reaching twice the volume of the Tambora eruption in 1815. Sedimentological analyses of deposits confirm the exceptional size of the event, which had both an eruption magnitude and a volcanic explosivity index of 7. During the Samalas eruption, more than 40 km$^3$ of dense magma was expelled and the eruption column is estimated to have reached altitudes of 43 km. However, the climatic response to the Samalas event is debated since climate model simulations generally predict a stronger and more prolonged surface air cooling of Northern Hemisphere summers than inferred from tree-ring-based temperature reconstructions. Here, we draw on historical archives, ice-core data and tree-ring records to reconstruct the spatial and temporal climate response to the Samalas eruption. We find that 1258 and 1259 experienced some of the coldest Northern Hemisphere summers of the past millennium. However, cooling across the Northern Hemisphere was spatially heterogeneous. Western Europe, Siberia and Japan experienced strong cooling, coinciding with warmer-than-average conditions over Alaska and northern Canada. We suggest that in North America, volcanic radiative forcing was modulated by a positive phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Contemporary records attest to severe famines in England and Japan, but these began prior to the eruption. We conclude that the Samalas eruption aggravated existing crises, but did not trigger the famines. Era.Net RUSplus project ELVECS (SNF project number: IZRPZ0_164735) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Guillet, S Corona, C Stoffel, M Khodri, M Lavigne, F Ortega, P Eckert, N Sielenou, PD Daux, V Churakova (Sidorova), OV Davi, N Edouard, J-L Zhang, Y Luckman, BH Myglan, VS Guiot, J Beniston, M Masson-Delmotte, V Oppenheimer, C |
author_facet |
Guillet, S Corona, C Stoffel, M Khodri, M Lavigne, F Ortega, P Eckert, N Sielenou, PD Daux, V Churakova (Sidorova), OV Davi, N Edouard, J-L Zhang, Y Luckman, BH Myglan, VS Guiot, J Beniston, M Masson-Delmotte, V Oppenheimer, C |
author_sort |
Guillet, S |
title |
Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records |
title_short |
Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records |
title_full |
Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records |
title_fullStr |
Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate response to the Samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records |
title_sort |
climate response to the samalas volcanic eruption in 1257 revealed by proxy records |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/262757 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.8046 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
ice core Alaska Siberia |
genre_facet |
ice core Alaska Siberia |
op_relation |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/262757 doi:10.17863/CAM.8046 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.8046 |
_version_ |
1789966950471827456 |