Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 523; no. 7562; pp. 543 - 549
• Main Authors: Sigl, M., Winstrup, M., McConnell, J. R., Welten, K. C., Plunkett, G., Ludlow, F., Büntgen, U., Caffee, M., Chellman, N., Dahl-Jensen, D., Fischer, H., Kipfstuhl, S., Kostick, C., Maselli, O. J., Mekhaldi, F., Mulvaney, R., Muscheler, R., Pasteris, D. R., Pilcher, J. R., Salzer, M., Schüpbach, S., Steffensen, J. P., Vinther, B. M., Woodruff, T. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 30.07.2015; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 704/106/125; 704/106/35/824; 704/106/413; Aerosols; Aerosols - analysis; Americas; Antarctic Regions; Atmosphere - chemistry; Beryllium; Carbon Radioisotopes; Climate; Climate Research; Climate variability; Cooling; Cores; Disasters - history; Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Europe; Famine; Geology; Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap; Greenland; History, Ancient; History, Medieval; Humanities and Social Sciences; Ice - analysis; Klimatforskning; multidisciplinary; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Radioisotopes; Radiometric Dating; Science; Seasons; Sulfur; Temperature; Time Factors; Trees - anatomy & histology; Trees - growth & development; Tropical Climate; Tropical environments; Volcanic eruptions; Volcanic Eruptions - history; Volcanoes; Antarctic Regions; Americas; Europe; Greenland; Sri Lanka; United States; United Kingdom; Northern Hemisphere
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature14565

Volcanic eruptions contribute to climate variability, but quantifying these contributions has been limited by inconsistencies in the timing of atmospheric volcanic aerosol loading determined from ice cores and subsequent cooling from climate proxies such as tree rings. Here we resolve these inconsistencies and show that large eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of interannual-to-decadal temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years. Our results are based on new records of atmospheric aerosol loading developed from high-resolution, multi-parameter measurements from an array of Greenland and Antarctic ice cores as well as distinctive age markers to constrain chronologies. Overall, cooling was proportional to the magnitude of volcanic forcing and persisted for up to ten years after some of the largest eruptive episodes. Our revised timescale more firmly implicates volcanic eruptions as catalysts in the major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions in Eurasia and Mesoamerica while allowing multi-millennium quantification of climate response to volcanic forcing. Ice-core and tree-ring data show that large volcanic eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years, firmly implicating such eruptions as catalysts in major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions. Recalibration of volcanic eruptions/climate linkage Past research has suggested that volcanic eruptions influence climate, but it has proved difficult to match the chronologies of annually resolved and precisely dated tree rings to the chronologies of volcanic variability recorded in ice cores. Michael Sigl et al . use a spike in atmospheric 10 Be — clearly linked to a cosmic-ray anomaly that left a unique atmospheric 14 C fingerprint in tree rings across Europe in the year 775 — as a means of dating a similar spike observed in ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. In making this connection the authors establish that the ice core record should be adjusted by seven years. The data confirm that large volcanic eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years, and implicate such eruptions as catalysts in major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions.