Summer is a period of holidays, midday heat, fruit abundance, ice cream and soft drinks. Time for T-shirts, shorts, miniskirts and beach bikinis. Only in the middle of the second decade of the 19th century there was no summer.
Severe winters gave way to snow-covered springs and turned into snow-cold "summer" months. Three years without summer, three years without harvest, three years without hope

Irish families try to escape the flood

It all started in 1812 - two volcanoes “turned on”, La Soufrière (St. Vincent Island, Leeward Islands) and Avu (Sangir Island, Indonesia). The volcanic relay was continued in 1813 by Suwanosejima (Tokara island, Japan) and, in 1814, by Mayon (Luzon island, Philippines).

According to scientists, the activity of four volcanoes reduced the average annual temperature on the planet by 0.5-0.7 ° C and caused serious, albeit local (in the region of their location) damage to the population. However, the ultimate cause of the mini version of the 1816-1818 Ice Age was the Indonesian Tambora.

Volcano Tambora eruption

1815 April 10, 1815 on the island of Sumbawa (Indonesia) Tambora volcano began to erupt - in a few hours the island with an area of ​​15,448 km2 was completely covered with a layer of volcanic ash one and a half meters thick. At least 100 km3 of ash was ejected into the Earth's atmosphere by the volcano.

The activity of Tambor (7 points out of the maximum 8 according to the volcanic explosive index) led to a decrease in the average annual temperature by another 1-1.5 ° C - the ash rose into the upper layer of the atmosphere and began to reflect the sun's rays, acting like a thick gray curtain on a window on a sunny day .

Modern scientists call the eruption of the Indonesian stratovolcano Tambor the largest in the last 2000 years. However, high volcanic activity is not all. "Oil to the fire" added our star - the Sun. The years of intense saturation of the Earth's atmosphere with volcanic ash coincided with the period of minimum solar activity (Dalton minimum), which began around 1796 and ended in 1820.

At the beginning of the 19th century, our planet received less solar energy than before or after. The lack of solar heat has reduced the average annual temperature on the Earth's surface by another 1-1.5°C.

Average annual temperatures in 1816-1818 (based on materials from the site cru.uea.ac.uk)

Due to the small amount of solar thermal energy, the waters of the seas and oceans cooled down by about 2°C, which completely changed the usual water cycle in nature and the wind rose on the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. Also, according to the testimonies of English captains, a lot of ice hummocks appeared off the east coast of Greenland, which had never happened before.

The conclusion suggests itself - in 1816 (perhaps even earlier - in the middle of 1815) there was a deviation of the warm ocean current of the Gulf Stream, which warms Europe. Active volcanoes, a weakly active Sun, as well as cooling of ocean and sea waters lowered the temperature of each month, each day in 1816 by 2.5-3oC.

It would seem - nonsense, some three degrees. But in the industrialized human society these three "cold" degrees caused a terrifying catastrophe on a global scale.

Flooding in the suburbs

Paris Europe. In 1816 and two subsequent years, European countries, still not recovered from Napoleonic Wars, became the worst place on Earth - they were hit by cold, hunger, epidemics and an acute shortage of fuel. There was no harvest at all for two years. In England, Germany and France, who were feverishly buying grain all over the world (mainly from the Russian Empire), one food riot after another took place.

Crowds of French, Germans and British broke into warehouses with grain and carried out all the supplies. Grain prices soared tenfold. Against the backdrop of constant riots, massive arson and looting, the Swiss authorities have introduced a state of emergency and a curfew in the country. The summer months instead of heat brought hurricanes, endless rains and snowstorms.

The large rivers of Austria and Germany overflowed their banks and flooded large areas. A typhoid epidemic broke out. Over 100,000 people died in Ireland alone in three years without a summer. The desire to survive is the only thing that drove the population Western Europe in 1816-1818. Tens of thousands of citizens of England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Holland sold their property for next to nothing, threw everything that was not sold and fled across the ocean to the American continent.

Farmer in a field with dead corn in US state Vermont North America.

In March 1816, winter did not end, snow was falling and frosts were standing. In April-May, America was covered with endless rains with hail, and in June-July - frosts. The corn crop in the northern states of the United States was hopelessly lost, and attempts to grow at least some grain in Canada were fruitless. Newspapers vying with each other promised famine, farmers massively slaughtered livestock.

Canadian authorities have voluntarily opened grain warehouses to the public. Thousands of inhabitants of the American northern lands were drawn to the south - for example, the state of Vermont was practically depopulated. China. The provinces of the country, especially Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Anhui and Jiangxi, were affected by a powerful cyclone. Endless rains fell for several weeks in a row, and on summer nights frost fettered the rice fields.

For three years in a row, every summer in China was not summer at all - rains and frosts, snow and hail. In the northern provinces, buffaloes died from hunger and cold. The country, unable to grow rice due to the sudden harsh climate and floods in the Yangtze River Valley, was gripped by famine.

Famine in the provinces of the Chinese Qing Empire

India (in early XIX century - a colony of Great Britain (East India Company)). The territory of the country, for which monsoons (winds blowing from the ocean) and heavy rains are common in summer, was under the influence of a severe drought - there were no monsoons. For three years in a row, the drought at the end of the summer gave way to many weeks of downpours.

A sharp change in climate contributed to the mutation of cholera vibrio - a severe cholera epidemic began in Bengal, covering half of India and quickly moving north. Russia (Russian Empire).

Three devastating and difficult years for the countries of Europe, North America and Asia on the territory of Russia passed surprisingly smoothly - neither the authorities nor the population of the country simply noticed anything. On the contrary, all three years - 1816, 1817 and 1818 - the summer in Russia passed much better than in other years.

Warm, moderately dry weather contributed to good grain harvests, vied with each other purchased by the distressed states of Europe and North America. The cooling of the European seas, along with a possible change in the direction of the Gulf Stream, only improved the climatic conditions in Russia.

Emperor Nicholas I stops the cholera riot in Moscow

Expeditionary troops returned to Russia, having participated in the Asian wars with the Persians and Turks for several years. Together with them came cholera, from which (official data) 197,069 citizens of the Russian Empire died in two years, and a total of 466,457 people fell ill. Three years without a summer and the events that developed during this period have influenced many generations of earthlings, including you, readers of the svagor.com blog. See for yourself.

Dracula and Frankenstein. Holidays on Lake Geneva (Switzerland) in May-June 1816 with friends, among whom were George Gordon, Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, were completely spoiled by gloomy weather and constant rain. Due to bad weather, friends were forced to spend their evenings in the fireplace room of the Villa Diodati, rented for a vacation by Lord Byron.

Film adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

They amused themselves by reading ghost stories aloud (the book was called Phantasmagorina or Stories of Ghosts, Phantoms, Spirits, etc.). Also discussed were the experiments of the poet Erasmus Darwin, who was rumored to have studied the effects of weak electric current on the organs of a dead human body. Byron invited everyone to write a short story on a supernatural topic - there was nothing to do anyway.

It was then that Mary Shelley came up with the idea of ​​a novel about Dr. Frankenstein - she later admitted that she dreamed of the plot after one of the evenings at Villa Diodati. Lord Byron told a short "supernatural" story about Augustus Darvell feeding on the blood of the women he loved. Dr. John Polidori, hired by the Baron to take care of his health, carefully memorized the plot of the vampire story.

Later, when Byron fired Polidori, he wrote a short story about Lord Ruthven called "The Vampire". Polidori deceived English publishers - he said that the vampire story was written by Byron and the lord himself asked him to bring the manuscript to England for publication. The release of the story in 1819 became the subject of a lawsuit between Byron, who denied the authorship of The Vampire, and Polidori, who claimed the opposite. One way or another, it was the winter summer of 1816 that became the cause of all subsequent literary stories about vampires.

John Smith Jr.

Mormons. In 1816, John Smith Jr. was 11 years old. Due to summer frosts and the threat of famine, his family was forced to leave the farm in Vermont in 1817 and settled in the town of Palmyra, located in western New York State. Since this region was extremely popular with all kinds of preachers (mild climate, abundance of flocks and donations), young John Smith completely immersed himself in the study of religion and para-religious rites.

Years later, at the age of 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon, later founding the Mormon religious sect in Illinois. Superphosphate fertilizer. The Darmstadt son of an apothecary, Justus von Liebig, survived three hungry years without a summer when he was 13-16 years old. In his youth, he was interested in firecrackers and actively experimented with "explosive" mercury (mercury fulminate), and since 1831, remembering the harsh years of the "volcanic winter", he engaged in deep research in organic chemistry.

Von Liebig developed superphosphate fertilizers that significantly increased grain yields. By the way, when Indian cholera came to Europe, it happened in the 50s years XIX century, it was Justus von Liebig who developed the first effective cure for this disease (the name of the drug is Fleischinfusum).

English fleet attacks Chinese warships

Opium Wars. Three years without a summer has hit Chinese traditional rice farmers in the country's southern provinces hard. Threatened by famine, farmers in southern China decided to grow the opium poppy because it was easy to maintain and guaranteed to generate income. Although the emperors of the Qing Dynasty categorically forbade the cultivation of opium poppy, farmers ignored this ban (bribed officials).

By 1820, the number of opium addicts in China had risen from the previous two million to seven million, and the Daoguang Emperor banned the import of opium into China, smuggled in exchange for silver from the colonies of Great Britain and the United States. In response, England, France and the United States launched a war in China, the purpose of which was the unlimited import of opium into the Qing Empire.

Railcar bicycle by Carl von Drez

Bike. watching difficult situation with oats for horses, established in 1816, the German inventor Karl von Dresz decided to build the new kind transport. In 1817, he created the first prototype of modern bicycles and motorcycles - two wheels, a frame with a seat and a T-handle. True, von Drez's bicycle did not have pedals - the rider was asked to push off the ground and slow down on turns with his feet. Carl von Dres is best known as the inventor of the railcar, which is named after him.

Boldinskaya autumn A.S. Pushkin. Three autumn months of 1830, Alexander Sergeevich spent in the village of Boldino not of his own free will - because of the cholera quarantine established in Moscow by the authorities. It was the cholera vibrio, which mutated during an unusual drought, which abruptly gave way to continuous autumn rains and caused the Ganges to flood, and 14 years later it was brought into Russian Empire, the descendants are "owed" to the appearance of Pushkin's brightest works - "Eugene Onegin", "The Tale of the Priest and his Worker Balda", etc.

Such is the story of three years without a summer that occurred at the beginning of the 19th century and was caused by a number of factors, including the eruption of the stratovolcano Tambora. It remains to remind you that the seven-point Tambora is far from the most significant volcanic problem of earthlings. There are, unfortunately, much more dangerous volcanic objects on Earth - supervolcanoes.

• Volcanic winter - cooling of the planetary climate due to atmospheric pollution with ash in the process of a particularly large volcanic eruption, which entails the occurrence of an anti-greenhouse effect. Ashes and sulfuric gases, from which sulfuric acid aerosols are formed, after being released to the level of the stratosphere, spread like a blanket over the entire planet. Because of this, the radiation of the sun is shielded by the atmosphere to a much greater extent than usual, which causes a cooling of the global climate. (A similar effect that could be caused by a hypothetical nuclear war, is called nuclear winter.)

  The de facto effect of volcanic winter occurs after every volcanic eruption, but it becomes truly noticeable when the eruption reaches 6 points on the volcanic explosive index (VEI) scale, or more. For example, after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo on the Philippine island of Luzon in 1991, meteorologists recorded a temporary drop in the average temperature of the Earth by 0.5 °C.

  More severe consequences were caused by the eruption of the Tambora volcano on the island of Sumbawa in 1815, which reached 7 points on the eruption scale. During the year, it caused a decrease in the global average temperature by 0.4-0.7 ° C, and in some areas - by 3-5 ° C, which in Europe was accompanied by frosts in mid-July, which is why 1816 was called by contemporaries the year no summer. Until 1819, an unusual cold snap caused crop failures and famine and contributed to migration waves from Europe to America.

  Presumably, a similar event took place in the VI century, when in 536, 540 and 547 three strong eruptions caused the onset of the Late Antique Ice Age.

  For Russia, the eruption of the Peruvian Huaynaputina volcano in 1600, which some researchers consider the cause of the cold snap, crop failure and the Great Famine in 1601-1603, may have had the greatest consequences.

  According to one theory, the eruption of the Toba volcano on the island of Sumatra 74 thousand years ago was the reason for the reduction of the entire terrestrial population of ancestors. modern people up to about 10 thousand individuals, and the geologically synchronous supereruption of the Phlegrean fields in the Apennines, Kazbek and St. Anna volcano in the Southern Carpathians about 40 thousand years ago, may have caused the extinction of the Neanderthals, who then numbered from Gibraltar in the south of the Iberian Peninsula to the cave Okladnikov in Altai, there are about 12 thousand individuals, of which 3500 are female.

Related concepts

Milanković cycles (named after the Serbian astrophysicist Milutin Milanković) are fluctuations in the amount of sunlight and solar radiation reaching the Earth over long periods of time. To a large extent, Milankovitch cycles explain the natural climate changes occurring on Earth and play an important role in climatology and paleoclimatology.

Volcanic eruption - the process of ejection by a volcano onto the earth's surface of incandescent fragments, ash, an outpouring of magma, which, having poured onto the surface, becomes lava. Volcanic eruption can have a time period from several hours to many years.

Global cooling - the process of gradual cooling of the Earth; a hypothesis postulating a global cooling of the Earth's surface and its atmosphere up to its glaciation.

Climate change in the Arctic includes an increase in temperature, a decrease in the area and thickness sea ​​ice, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Glacioisostasia (from Latin glacies - “ice”, other Greek ἴσος - “equal”, “same” and στάσις - “state”) - very slow vertical and horizontal movements earth's surface in the territories of ancient and modern glaciation. Subsidence and uplift of often large areas of land and continental shelves are a consequence of the violation of the isostatic equilibrium of the earth's crust during the appearance and removal of glacial load. The phenomenon manifests itself in the north of Europe (especially in Scotland, Fennoscandia...

The supercontinental cycle is the time interval between successive unifications of all the land of the planet into a single continent. Science has established that Earth's crust constantly reconfigured: its blocks move relative to each other, which leads to the displacement, collision and disintegration of the continents. At the same time, it is not known exactly whether the total amount of continental crust is changing. One supercontinental cycle lasts from 300 to 500 million years.

The history of scientific research on climate change dates back to the beginning of the 19th century, when scientists first learned about ice ages and other natural changes in the Earth's climate in the past, and first discovered the greenhouse effect. In the late 19th century, scientists first began to argue that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate. After that, many other theories of climate change were put forward, for example, under the influence of volcanic activity and due to changes in the solar ...

́ will be determined by a number of factors: an increase in the luminosity of the Sun, the loss of thermal energy of the Earth's core, disturbances from other bodies solar system, plate tectonics and surface biochemistry. According to Milankovitch's theory, the planet will continue to undergo glacial cycles due to changes in the Earth's orbital eccentricity, axial tilt, and axial precession. As a result of the ongoing supercontinent cycle, plate tectonics will likely lead to the formation of a supercontinent...

The Cenozoic glaciation, or Antarctic glaciation, began 33.9 million years ago at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary and continues. This is the current glaciation of the Earth. Its beginning is marked by the formation of the Antarctic ice sheets. The Late Cenozoic Ice Age gets its name from the fact that it spans roughly the second half of the Cenozoic era to the present.

The maximum of the last glaciation (the abbreviation LGM is often used) is the time of the maximum volume of ice sheets during the last ice age, which took place 26.5-19 thousand years ago.

The clathrate gun hypothesis is a generalized name for a series of hypotheses that rising ocean temperatures (and/or falling ocean levels) can trigger a sudden release of methane from methane hydrate deposits under the seafloor, which, due to the fact that that methane is a strong greenhouse gas, in turn will lead to a further increase in temperatures and further destabilization of methane hydrates - as a result, starting a self-reinforcing process, equally unstoppable ...

In 2017, Europe may be covered by the so-called "Volcanic winter", due to the eruption of the Baurdarburg volcano in Iceland.
Against the backdrop of the rapidly developing situation in the Middle East theater of operations, as well as political confusion in the US leadership circles, humanity has not paid attention to one seemingly unimportant one.

On November 19, 2016, the Icelandic Meteorological Bureau recorded three tremors with a maximum magnitude of 4.3 on the Richter scale in the northeastern part of the caldera of Iceland's most powerful volcano, Baurdarburg, which "woke up" in May of this year. European experts who observe the behavior of this volcano are making optimistic forecasts, stating that the active phase of the eruption will not occur earlier than in 20 years, citing historical chronicles as evidence.

Despite the positive attitude of Western seismologists, experts conducted a study of the data. An analysis of the information received showed that the frequency and intensity of tremors in the area of ​​the Baurdarburg volcano increases in proportion to the activation of another powerful Icelandic volcano, Katla. Since September 2016, a fourfold symmetrical increase in tremors from two volcanoes has been recorded.

This state of affairs is due geographical location- both volcanoes are located at a distance of only 130 km from each other, and also directly above the tectonic fault connecting the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates (Fig. 1).

Recall that the Baurdarburg volcano (the Nordurland-Eistra region, the height is more than 2000 m, the depth of the crater is 700 m), in addition to activating the chain reaction of the Katla volcano (the volcano in the south of Iceland, the height is 1512 m, the diameter of the caldera is 10 km), is capable of generating large explosions with index VEI-6 on the 8-point scale of explosiveness. For comparison, after such an explosion there will be an eruption, the consequences of which are comparable to the use of nuclear, i.e. there is a so-called effect of "volcanic winter" - a decrease in temperature on a planetary scale.

Most likely, in the next three months, the frequency and intensity of tremors will only increase. It is worth noting that with an increase in shocks to 6 points on the Richter scale, the glacier above the Baurdarburg volcano will crack (200-350 meters is enough), which will provoke the active phase of the eruption. As a result, the volcano will begin to melt, boil and explode, which will lead to the release into the atmosphere of small quartz-volcanic particles of volcanic ash to a height of more than 11,000 meters, as well as about 150 million tons of sulfur dioxide (much more than the total amount produced by modern world industry in year).

Also, as a result of the release into the atmosphere within 3-5 days, a cloud of volcanic ash, carried away by the southeast wind, will spread more than 3500 km from the epicenter of the eruption, which will cause:
a) The most powerful air transport crisis in Europe. The engines of passenger planes flying over 5,000 meters will stall when heavy particles of volcanic ash enter the turbines. European countries will be forced to ease transportation plans across the continent, which will significantly hit the economies of these countries. The losses of states will reach more than $500 million per day. By comparison, Washington's entire geopolitical combination in Ukraine cost $5 billion;
b) Acid rain. Toxic precipitation will affect all European countries, the Baltic States, Belarus, as well as the European part of Russia. Total damage to agriculture will be more than $2.8 billion weekly;
c) Microparticles of volcanic ash have an irregular shape, which, when they enter the lungs of a person, contributes to their failure. This will lead to a sharp increase in mortality. With an eruption duration of more than 3 weeks, the death rate will exceed 130 thousand people daily.

Such a development of the plot is only a matter of time. The fact is that official data for 2016, obtained from NASA satellites, show an increase in the speed of simultaneous pressure on a tectonic fault under the state of Iceland. The African tectonic plate drifting from south to north at a speed of 5.5 cm/year, and from the west the North American plate presses southward at a speed of 3.5-4 cm/year.

To summarize, taking into account the geopolitical situation in the world arena of diplomacy, the socio-economic chaos that occurred during the above development of the plot will affect all spheres of human life, including the life of the person himself.
Given the migration of Middle Eastern refugees to Europe throughout 2016, the death rate during the cataclysm will approach 200 thousand people daily. A significant part of the deaths will occur in children, as well as the elderly generation over 60 years old.

However, note that there is positive side this event, if we take into account the geopolitical component. There is a possibility that the crisis in Europe will play into the hands of the opposition forces in Germany and France on their way to power in 2017, who will draw the attention of their compatriots to the incompetence of the current authorities in helping citizens during a natural disaster.

Volcanic winter is near. What is known about a new natural threat that can kill a hundred million people

Japanese geologists from the University of Kobe have discovered a giant lava dome forming inside a half-submerged supervolcano whose eruption will release 40 cubic kilometers of magma. Such an explosion could cause shifts the like of which hasn't been seen in this region for more than seven thousand years - and kill tens of millions of people in this way. Read more about the new threat in the 360 ​​article.

Wikimedia Commons

Terror from the Deep

This underwater volcano, writes the journal Scientific reports, began to form exactly then, approximately 7300 years ago, after the titanic eruption of Akahoya near the Japanese island of Kyushu. As a result, an almost 20-kilometer underwater gorge was formed, called the Kikai caldera. In the lava flows of this cataclysm, the ancient Jomon civilization, the forerunner of modern Japanese civilization, perished. Now the latter may also be under attack.

Such super-eruptions are rare, but if they do occur, their devastating effect will be felt globally, if not on the entire planet, then in the entire region - giant clouds of ash and other particles can completely cover the sun for years, after which it will begin on Earth " volcanic winter.

Geologists working on the site say the lava dome could make a limited eruption, ejecting about 16 cubic kilometers of magma at a time. At the same time, the chance of a full-fledged eruption tends to zero, but the possible damage from it is a sufficient reason to continue working and understand the nature of this volcano, under what conditions it can explode in full growth. Now this is the priority of the research team.

The chance of the caldera erupting and impacting the Japanese archipelago is approximately 1% in 100 years. But if this does happen, the approximate number of victims of such a cataclysm will reach 100 million people, in the worst scenario,

Yoshiuki Tatsumi, Japanese geologist

Throughout 2017, Professor Tatsumi and his colleagues studied the bottom of the Kikai caldera, an elongated crater left after that ancient eruption, in three visits. During this exploration, they found a volcanic dome rising about 600 meters above the rest of the caldera. An analysis of the rocks taken from the dome showed that petrified lava lies there, which means that the volcano has erupted over these 7300 years, but unnoticed by people. After studying changes in the surface of the dome, scientists came to the conclusion that more and more magma is accumulating under the surface of the volcano.

By itself, the presence of lava in the dome does not mean anything, scientists say, but in the future, the expansion of the volcano's magma chamber will only increase the risk of a full-fledged eruption.

old titans

Still, you shouldn’t be very worried - there are dozens, if not hundreds of such dormant volcanoes in the world. The last time such an erupted in 2010 - the ash from the muzzle of the Icelandic Eyyafyatlayokudl covered almost the whole of Europe and even paralyzed air traffic in the region for several days, but there were no further casualties and destruction.

A volcano is considered dormant if it has not erupted once in 10 thousand years, but if it has never erupted in 25 thousand years, it is declared extinct. As for Japan, the iconic Mount Fuji is considered the main dormant volcano there. Although it erupted in the 18th century and the “term” has not yet come out, most Japanese agree that he still “fell asleep”.

The main dormant volcano in Russia is Elbrus, the highest point in Europe. It, again, erupted within 10 thousand years, around the 12th century AD. e. , but there are no signs that this may happen again now (as in the case of the Akahoya caldera). However, if this happens, the consequences will also not be the most pleasant - volcanic explosions will spread lava, ash and particles for hundreds of kilometers, up to Astrakhan. Also, lava will melt glaciers and the Caucasian rivers - Baksan, Malka, Kuban, Terek, Kuma and Podkumok - will overflow their banks, flooding hundreds settlements throughout the republics of the North Caucasus.

The most famous dormant supervolcano capable of causing monumental continental destruction is Yellowstone, located in the United States. There are many legends around it, and in many eschatological notions, it is its eruption that will cause the end of the world. According to the leading specialist in supervolcanoes, Professor Bill McGuire of the London research center "Banfield Graig Hazard" in London, the observation of Yellowstone should be a priority for world volcanologists.

In 2004, there were signs that the volcano was "waking up", and instead of gradually fading, a certain deep process began: in some of its places, the earth's crust clearly began to move, new elevations began to appear. According to observers, the growth of the Yellowstone soil is 7 centimeters per year, new powerful geysers appear every year, and the old ones dry up. So, it is worth worrying not only about new threats from the Eastern Hemisphere, but also about well-forgotten old ones from the Western.

Volcanoes are a powerful factor in climate change on our planet. Global warming over the course of the 20th century is explained not only by the action of greenhouse gases, but also by the fact that over the past 120 years there have been no major volcanic eruptions on Earth. , a category six on the VEI scale, caused a drop of 0.5 degrees across the globe for nearly 2 years. And what happens on Earth when more powerful eruptions occur? Let's see what scientists know about the connection between powerful eruptions and severe cooling on our planet.

Eruption of Mount Saint Helena. May 1980

In May 1980, Mount St. Helens (Mount St. Helena) exploded in the state of Washington in the north of the United States, not far from Seattle. The cloud of ash, shot up from the cone vertically upwards in 10 minutes, rose to a height of 19.2 km. Day turned into night. In the city of Spokane (Washington), 400 km from the volcano, visibility dropped to 3 m in broad daylight, as soon as this cloud reached the city. In Yakima, 145 km from the volcano, a layer of ash up to 12 cm thick fell. Ash fell in a smaller amount in Idaho, in central Montana and partly in Colorado. A cloud of ash circled the globe in 11 days. For weeks, a belt of ash colored sunsets, affecting the atmosphere. The eruption of Mount Saint Helena in 1980 was, by volcanic standards, small: the ejection was equal to one cubic meter. km., i.e. fifth category on the VEI scale.

In June 1982, the El Chichon volcano in Mexico exploded.

El Chichon - April 1982

The eruption of the El Chichon volcano occurred in two stages: on March 29 and April 3-4, 1982. Initially, volcanic ash filled the atmosphere to a height of about 30 km. Then what was in the stratosphere (about 10 Mt) began to be transferred to the west. The tropospheric part of the cloud (3-7 Mt) moved in the opposite direction and rather quickly settled on the Earth's surface. The stratospheric cloud, expanding horizontally, made several distinct revolutions around the Earth. Observations in the Hawaiian Islands showed that by December (compared to June), the concentration of ash at a height of 20 km decreased by 6 times due to dispersal. In temperate latitudes, volcanic ash appeared in November 1982. Signs of increasing turbidity in the Arctic stratosphere appeared only in March 1983. Thus, it took about a year for the pollution to be evenly distributed in the stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere. In the future, it evenly decreased over the year by about 3 times.

Both volcanoes ejected 0.5 km3 of the smallest particles (between 4 and 5 categories on the VEI scale). This is many times more than the average amount of dust entering the atmosphere in a year. Emissions from the El Chichon volcano reached a height of 35 km. Several very cold winters followed the eruption. The winter of 1981/82 in the USA and Canada was one of the coldest (230 Americans died from the cold); in the summer of 1982/83, Australia experienced perhaps the most dramatic drought in the history of the continent - the "great dry".

The eruption of the volcano Novarupta (Novarupta Volcano) in June 1912 - one of the chain of volcanoes in Alaska - was the largest in the twentieth century.

Novarupta Volcano

It was so powerful that at the same time magma flowed to the surface from another volcano, on Mount Katmai, located 10 km to the east, while the top of Katmai volcano collapsed and a caldera 800 m deep was formed. Within 60 hours, Novarupta volcano also ejected 29 cubic kilometers of magma and ash into the air (category 6), which covered an area of ​​3000 sq. meters around the base of the volcano.
The sound wave after the explosion was heard in Atlanta and St. Louis. Nearby Kodiak Island was covered in 30 cm of ash, and the acid rain, which fell at a distance of up to 600 km, was of such intensity that people in Vancouver fell apart into threads. After the eruption of the Katmai volcano in Alaska in 1912, acid the rains spoiled the clothes dried on the clotheslines - the concentration of hydrochloric acid in the rainwater was so great.
Interestingly, the crater was formed not at the site of the eruption, but, as mentioned above, on Mount Katmai, 10 km from Novarupta. It is likely that magma flows found an outlet at Novarupta, and subsidence of rocks occurred at Katmai. surrounding the place natural disaster most of the valley (with an area of ​​40 sq. miles) was buried by a layer of volcanic rocks, hardened lava and ash up to 210 m thick. When an expedition was equipped to the site of the eruption in 1915, it discovered a lifeless space, from the depths of which thousands of jets of smoke shot up , reaching a height of 100-300 m, so this place was called the "Valley of ten thousand smokes".

Mt. Katmai's crater lake

Then solar radiation for six months was 35 percent below the norm. This was noted by Russian meteorologists at the station in Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg in 1912. For several years, they observed a decrease in the flux of solar radiation. Now it is clear why in Jack London's stories about gold diggers in Alaska, the saliva of his heroes froze on the fly. In addition, the eruption of the Katmai Novarupta volcano led to a weakening of the monsoons in India, causing an unusually warm and dry summer in northern India.

And in October 1902, there was a powerful eruption of the Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala.

Santa Maria Volcano - Guatemala

Having thrown out about 5.5 cubic km. breeds (category 5-6). The pumice formed in the eruption covered approximately 273,000 sq. km, and volcanic ash was found even in San Francisco, at a distance of 4,000 km.

On August 26, 1883, the most powerful eruption in modern history occurred on the Krakatoa volcano, located on the island of the same name in the Sunda Strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra.

A lithograph of the massive 1883 eruption of Krakatoa

A grandiose explosion ejected 19 km3 (category 6) of ash, a column of hot gases, debris and dust rose to a height of more than 80 km, the roar that accompanied the eruption was heard thousands of kilometers away. A colossal explosion destroyed most of the volcano. The tsunami that arose during the eruption reached a height of 30 meters. This wave went around the entire globe, its impact was felt even in the English Channel, but it brought the greatest troubles to the islands of Indonesia, where 295 settlements were destroyed and about 36 thousand people died.
The products of the Krakatoa eruption consisted mainly of pumice and fine ash. It is believed that their volume reached 19 cubic kilometers. The results of volcanic emissions raised by the winds into the upper layers of the atmosphere created, as it were, an artificial barrier to the path of sunlight and this caused a significant cooling of the climate on the planet.

The eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia in April 1815 is the largest ever modern history in terms of the volume of erupted material (up to 150-180 cubic km of pyroclastics and gases), the number of human casualties (about 100,000 people died directly during the eruption, from 50,000 to 80,000 died of starvation and disease as a result of the eruption) and the global impact on the Earth's climate, the only historical eruption with an explosive factor of 7.

Tambora volcano

Seven-point cataclysms, according to scientists, occurred only four or five times in the historical period, and only one of them fell on the short era of scientific observations. The last eruption, comparable or stronger than the eruption of Tambora, according to geologists, was the eruption of the volcano Toupu in New Zealand ca 22 - 27 thousand years ago. n.

Before the catastrophe, Tambora slept for at least a thousand years. The volcano woke up in 1812 and gradually increased the power of the eruption. Surrounded by gardens and small villages, he slumbered peacefully for several years. None of the residents even suspected that they live next to a real hell, which can open up and destroy all life. Three years later, in 1815 (the year of the fall of Napoleon), one of the most powerful (among those known in the historical era) eruptions of Tambora occurred. In mid-April, the rumble of explosions resounded for 1400 kilometers, and the whole sky was covered with a black ominous veil. Ash avalanches hit not only Sumbawa, but also the neighboring islands - Lombok, Bali, Madura and Java. The strongest exclusions occurred on the following days - April 10, 11 and 12, when explosions were felt at a distance of 1750 kilometers from Tambora. Colossal masses of sand and volcanic dust were thrown into the air.

The states of Pekat, Sangar, Temboro and most of Dompo and Bima, located near the volcano, were covered with a meter-long layer of ash, under the weight of which dwellings and other buildings were destroyed even 111 kilometers from Tambora. From its crater, thirteen-meter volcanic bombs were thrown over a distance of more than forty kilometers. Clouds of ash covered the sky over an area with a radius of up to five hundred kilometers. Here, for three days, there was pitch darkness, which horrified millions of people in a territory equal to France. On Sumbawa, "Indonesian Pompeii" formed - a thick layer of ash covered human settlements. Excavations of the dead villages began only a couple of years ago.

Initially, the height of the fire-breathing mountain was four thousand meters, after the eruption it decreased by almost one and a half thousand. Dozens of cubic kilometers of rock that made up the young volcano turned into stones, hot sand and ash. The well-known Belgian volcanologist Garun Taziev later wrote in his book “Meetings with the Devil”: “If all this mass had fallen on Paris, a “grave hill” with a height of more than a thousand meters would have formed over the city.” On the site of the disappeared peak of the Tambora volcano, a giant caldera was formed - a depression with a diameter of seven kilometers and a depth of about seven hundred meters. More than one Eiffel Tower could be successfully lowered into such a funnel. During the formation of the caldera, (according to the most conservative estimates) 150 cubic kilometers of rocks were moved.

This “failure” gave rise to a giant tsunami wave in Bima Bay, which destroyed many buildings, uprooted trees and threw large ships that were on the road far to the island.

The eruption of the Tambora volcano shocked the entire Indonesian archipelago. It was one of the most terrible and devastating catastrophes in recent millennia in the history of the Earth. On the island of Borneo, 750 kilometers away from Tambora, so much ash fell that the locals even began to calculate the time after that as from “a year of great ash fall”.

The energy released during the eruption of Tambora is equivalent to an explosion of 200,000 atomic bombs. The caldera of the volcano at its inception killed 92 thousand people, only 29 inhabitants survived from the entire region.

The volcano turned a lifeless desert into the once flourishing lands. From the famine that was the consequence of the eruption, 48,000 people died on the island of Sumbawa, and 44,000 on the island of Lambok. About five thousand people died on the island of Bali.

The volcanic ash thrown into the atmosphere by Tambora also influenced the climate of Europe. 1816 has been called "the year without a summer". In London it was two or three degrees colder than usual, and in North America that year the harvest did not even ripen. There was a famine in Ireland and Wales. In the Northern Hemisphere, in the Old and New Worlds, due to unusually low temperatures, there was a crop failure that caused famine, and even snow fell in spring and summer in Europe. The following year, the climate improved somewhat, but the temperature anomaly continued for several years, and anomalously cold winters continued for several more years, until finally all emissions from Tambora settled and the atmospheric haze dissipated.
Until today, 1816 remains the coldest year since the beginning of documenting meteorological observations. In the US, he was also nicknamed "Eighteen hundred and frozen to death", which can be translated as "Thousand-eight hundred-frozen-to-death".

It turned out that a series of eruptions of the Laki volcano in Iceland from June 1783 to February 1784 led to deviations in temperature and rainfall.

Laki volcanoes

At the same time, in the summer of 1783, a record low level of the Nile was observed, the flow of which has been recorded since 622 AD. Approximately low levels were observed after the eruption of Mount Katmai volcano in 1912, at the same time a record low water level was recorded near the Niger River. In 939, the level of the Nile was also low after the eruption of the Eldgya volcano in Iceland.

Researchers have established a difference in the impact on climate of volcanic eruptions in the northern hemisphere and in tropical latitudes. According to scientists, most research work showed that eruptions in the tropics cause changes climatic conditions in the northern hemisphere in winter. In the same time, new job indicates a change in atmospheric circulation in the upper latitudes in summer.

Large amounts of sulfur dioxide are released into the atmosphere during the eruption, which, when interacting with water, forms aerosols that reduce insolation. In the summer of 1783, this led to a drop in the average temperature in the northern hemisphere by 2-3 degrees. Because of this, the difference between land and ocean temperatures has decreased, which caused the weakening of the monsoons in Africa and India. The latter, in turn, led to a weakening of coastal winds, which reduced the movement of moisture over land and precipitation in the region. Similar changes were obtained in the computer model.

Evidence of tree rings in northwest Alaska also showed significant stunting of tree growth in the summer of 1783. This summer was the coldest in the last 400 years, while tree growth in various parts of Siberia was minimal 500-600 years ago. A computer model showed that the weakening of the monsoons led to a warming in the summer of 1783 in the savannahs of the African Sahel, the Arabian Peninsula and India by 0.5-1.5 degrees Celsius. The researchers are confident that the weakened monsoons have reduced cloud cover over the region, allowing more solar energy to reach the planet's surface.

The eruption of the Peruvian Huaynaputina volcano in 1600 brought about historical changes in distant Russia.

Misti, also known as Huaynaputina

As a result of a powerful eruption, a huge amount of volcanic ash was thrown into the Earth's atmosphere. The researchers collected evidence that the following years were extremely cold, which had a serious impact on the state of agriculture and the situation in society. For this, the archives of several European countries, China, Russia, Japan, the Philippines and the countries of South America were studied.

So, in Russia in 1601 and 1603 there were crop failures and hunger riots, which weakened the power of Boris Godunov and allowed Tsarevich False Dmitry to gain the support of the people. In the territories of present-day Switzerland, Latvia and Estonia, severe colds were noted during these years. In France in 1601 there was a poor harvest of grapes caused by a prolonged winter. In China, peach trees bloomed much later than usual, and in Japan, some lakes froze over at a record early date.

An unusual "mystical fog" that covered in 536 AD. the vast territory of Eurasia, is described in the Byzantine chronicles: “The sun was dark, and it lasted 18 months; every day it only shone for about 4 hours, however, this light was very weak ... the sun had an unusual bluish color ... the fruits were not ripe.” Cold and drought led to the death of crops in Italy and Mesopotamia, which caused a terrible famine in the following years. According to Chinese sources, frost and snow occurred in many provinces of China in July and August 536, destroying crops and causing a famine that lasted until 538.

Researchers from the Center for Ice and Climate (Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen) found traces of a large volcanic eruption in 536. According to estimates of the accumulation of sulfates in ice columns, the mass of gases ejected into the atmosphere by this eruption turned out to be 40% more than during the eruption of the Tambora volcano. Thus, the 536 eruption was one of the largest in the last two millennia. Based on a comparison of data from Greenland and Antarctic ice columns, it can be assumed that its source was in the equatorial region, but north of Tambora volcano (80 south latitude).

Usually eruptions have a local effect. Global consequences occur when eruptive products, in particular sulfur dioxide gases, enter the stratosphere or the upper troposphere. More often this happens as a result of volcanic eruptions located in the equatorial zone. Sulphates tend to reflect the sun's rays, i.e. they do not let the light of the sun to the Earth, which is why the temperature of the atmosphere decreases.

Scientists find traces of volcanic eruptions in ice columns that are drilled in the thickness of the ice of Greenland and Antarctica. Ice core research is one of the main methods used in climate reconstruction. Layers of ice that form every year, just like tree rings, carry a lot of information about the natural conditions of a particular period. The ratio of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes can determine the temperature - the more "heavy" water, the warmer it was. The air bubbles remaining in the thickness of the ice make it possible to judge the composition of the atmosphere. And sulfates contained in ice cores are markers of volcanic eruptions.

Thanks to dedrochronology, it was possible to clarify the date of the eruption of the Santorini (Thira) volcano in the Aegean Sea, which caused the death of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete.

Santorini (Thera) Volcano

Previously, it was believed that this happened in 1450 BC. But recently, in the volcanic deposits of Tyra, an olive branch was found, the age of which was established using, so to speak, a hybrid of radiocarbon and dendro-chronological methods. With high accuracy, the date of the death of the tree, and, accordingly, the volcanic eruption, was determined - 1628 BC.

The eruption on the island of Santorini, which reshaped the history of European civilizations, is classified as a seven-point catastrophe. Examining volcanic deposits, scientists found that the Aegean eruption of Thera 3,600 years ago threw more than 100 cubic kilometers of magma into the air from the volcano's crater. It devastated the areas inhabited by ancient civilizations. Ash plunged much of the Mediterranean into darkness, and tsunamis destroyed local ports. When studying what is now the arc of Santorini, they find volcanic pumice at a depth of 80 meters, covering the seabed for 20-30 km in the area.

This eruption was the cause of the decline of the Minoan civilization. It is believed that it is it that describes the death of Atlantis. The story of Atlantis, an island empire that sank within a day, was told by Plato in his writings. In our century, it has been suggested that the eruption of the Santorini volcano destroyed Atlantis.

During the Santorini disaster, the destruction was even more grandiose than during the catastrophic explosion of Krakatoa. Traces of Santorini ash and pumice found in coastal areas North Africa and Asia Minor. The suggestion that the Santorini eruption destroyed Atlantis is only part of an intriguing story. Important biblical stories have their origin in the catastrophic eruption of Santorin, for example, the story about the "Darkness of Egypt".

After the giant explosion, the concentration of gases in the atmosphere was so high that clouds of ash covered the sun. Darkness fell on Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean for several days, caused by a volcanic cloud.

The Bible describes it this way. "And the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand to heaven, and there will be darkness in the land of Egypt, tangible darkness. Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days, they did not see each other, no one got up his three days" ("Exodus", 10.21-23),

Given that after the eruption of Krakatau volcano, total darkness lasted 22 hours at a distance of up to 200 kilometers, it is likely that during the Santorini eruption, darkness over Egypt lasted at least three days. The energy of the explosion of the Santorini volcano was 10 times greater than that of the Krakatoa explosion and reached 10^27 erg.

But all of these terrible eruptions that we talked about were no higher than category 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) scale. But there are more powerful volcanoes... What happens when supervolcanoes erupt?

To be continued.