The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland.
The Eldgjá lava flood is considered Iceland's largest volcanic eruption of the Common Era. While it is well established that it occurred after the Settlement of Iceland (circa 874 CE), the date of this great event has remained uncertain. This has hampered investigation of the eruption's im...
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ftunivcam:oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/275940 2024-02-04T10:00:53+01:00 The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. Oppenheimer, Clive Orchard, Andy Stoffel, Markus Newfield, Timothy P Guillet, Sébastien Corona, Christophe Sigl, Michael Di Cosmo, Nicola Büntgen, Ulf 2018 Print-Electronic application/pdf https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/275940 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.20799 eng eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2171-9 Clim Change https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/275940 doi:10.17863/CAM.20799 Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Article 2018 ftunivcam https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.20799 2024-01-11T23:28:32Z The Eldgjá lava flood is considered Iceland's largest volcanic eruption of the Common Era. While it is well established that it occurred after the Settlement of Iceland (circa 874 CE), the date of this great event has remained uncertain. This has hampered investigation of the eruption's impacts, if any, on climate and society. Here, we use high-temporal resolution glaciochemical records from Greenland to show that the eruption began in spring 939 CE and continued, at least episodically, until at least autumn 940 CE. Contemporary chronicles identify the spread of a remarkable haze in 939 CE, and tree ring-based reconstructions reveal pronounced northern hemisphere summer cooling in 940 CE, consistent with the eruption's high yield of sulphur to the atmosphere. Consecutive severe winters and privations may also be associated with climatic effects of the volcanic aerosol veil. Iceland's formal conversion to Christianity dates to 999/1000 CE, within two generations or so of the Eldgjá eruption. The end of the pagan pantheon is foretold in Iceland's renowned medieval poem, Vǫluspá ('the prophecy of the seeress'). Several lines of the poem describe dramatic eruptive activity and attendant meteorological effects in an allusion to the fiery terminus of the pagan gods. We suggest that they draw on first-hand experiences of the Eldgjá eruption and that this retrospection of harrowing volcanic events in the poem was intentional, with the purpose of stimulating Iceland's Christianisation over the latter half of the tenth century. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Iceland Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository Greenland Eldgjá ENVELOPE(-18.608,-18.608,63.962,63.962) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
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ftunivcam |
language |
English |
topic |
0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience |
spellingShingle |
0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Oppenheimer, Clive Orchard, Andy Stoffel, Markus Newfield, Timothy P Guillet, Sébastien Corona, Christophe Sigl, Michael Di Cosmo, Nicola Büntgen, Ulf The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. |
topic_facet |
0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience |
description |
The Eldgjá lava flood is considered Iceland's largest volcanic eruption of the Common Era. While it is well established that it occurred after the Settlement of Iceland (circa 874 CE), the date of this great event has remained uncertain. This has hampered investigation of the eruption's impacts, if any, on climate and society. Here, we use high-temporal resolution glaciochemical records from Greenland to show that the eruption began in spring 939 CE and continued, at least episodically, until at least autumn 940 CE. Contemporary chronicles identify the spread of a remarkable haze in 939 CE, and tree ring-based reconstructions reveal pronounced northern hemisphere summer cooling in 940 CE, consistent with the eruption's high yield of sulphur to the atmosphere. Consecutive severe winters and privations may also be associated with climatic effects of the volcanic aerosol veil. Iceland's formal conversion to Christianity dates to 999/1000 CE, within two generations or so of the Eldgjá eruption. The end of the pagan pantheon is foretold in Iceland's renowned medieval poem, Vǫluspá ('the prophecy of the seeress'). Several lines of the poem describe dramatic eruptive activity and attendant meteorological effects in an allusion to the fiery terminus of the pagan gods. We suggest that they draw on first-hand experiences of the Eldgjá eruption and that this retrospection of harrowing volcanic events in the poem was intentional, with the purpose of stimulating Iceland's Christianisation over the latter half of the tenth century. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Oppenheimer, Clive Orchard, Andy Stoffel, Markus Newfield, Timothy P Guillet, Sébastien Corona, Christophe Sigl, Michael Di Cosmo, Nicola Büntgen, Ulf |
author_facet |
Oppenheimer, Clive Orchard, Andy Stoffel, Markus Newfield, Timothy P Guillet, Sébastien Corona, Christophe Sigl, Michael Di Cosmo, Nicola Büntgen, Ulf |
author_sort |
Oppenheimer, Clive |
title |
The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. |
title_short |
The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. |
title_full |
The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. |
title_fullStr |
The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland. |
title_sort |
eldgjá eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the christianisation of iceland. |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/275940 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.20799 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-18.608,-18.608,63.962,63.962) |
geographic |
Greenland Eldgjá |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Eldgjá |
genre |
Greenland Iceland |
genre_facet |
Greenland Iceland |
op_relation |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/275940 doi:10.17863/CAM.20799 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.20799 |
_version_ |
1789966405064458240 |