Volcanic winter of 536

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Extreme weather events of 535–536
)

Tombstone in the chapel of Filippo e Giacomo, Nosedo, dated to AD 536 (the second year after the consulship of Decius Paulinus).

The volcanic winter of 536 was the most severe and protracted episode of climatic cooling in the

Eastern Roman Empire
, although the impact of the cooler temperatures extended beyond Europe. Modern scholarship has determined that in early AD 536 (or possibly late 535), an eruption ejected massive amounts of sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, which reduced the solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface and cooled the atmosphere for several years. In March 536, Constantinople began experiencing darkened skies and lower temperatures.

Summer temperatures in 536 fell by as much as 2.5 °C (4.5 °F) below normal in Europe. The lingering impact of the volcanic winter of 536 was augmented in 539–540, when another volcanic eruption caused summer temperatures to decline as much as 2.7 °C (4.9 °F) below normal in Europe.[2] There is evidence of still another volcanic eruption in 547 which would have extended the cool period. The volcanic eruptions caused crop failures, and were accompanied by the Plague of Justinian, famine, and millions of deaths and initiated the Late Antique Little Ice Age, which lasted from 536 to 560.[3]

The medieval scholar Michael McCormick wrote that 536 "was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year."[4]

Documentary evidence

The Roman historian

portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness... and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear".[5][6]

In 538, the Roman statesman Cassiodorus described the following to one of his subordinates in letter 25:[7]

  • The sun's rays were weak, and they appeared a "bluish" colour.
  • At noon, no shadows from people were visible on the ground.
  • The heat from the sun was feeble.
  • The moon, even when full, was "empty of splendour"
  • "A winter without storms, a spring without mildness, and a summer without heat"
  • Prolonged frost and unseasonable drought
  • The seasons "seem to be all jumbled up together"
  • The sky is described as "blended with alien elements" just like cloudy weather, except prolonged. It was "stretched like a hide across the sky" and prevented the "true colours" of the sun and moon from being seen, along with the sun's warmth.
  • Frosts during harvest, which made apples harden and grapes sour.
  • The need to use stored food to last through the situation.
  • Subsequent letters (no. 26 and 27) discuss plans to relieve a widespread famine.

Michael the Syrian (1126–1199), a patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, reported that during 536–537 the sun shone feebly for a year and a half.[8]

The Gaelic

Irish Annals[9][10][11]
recorded the following:

The mid-10th-century Annales Cambriae record for the year 537:

Further phenomena were reported by independent contemporary sources:

  • Low temperatures, even snow during the summer (snow reportedly fell in August in China, which caused the harvest there to be delayed)[13]
  • Widespread crop failures[14]
  • "A dense, dry fog" in the Middle East, China and Europe[13]
  • Drought in
    Moche culture[13][15]

There are other sources of evidence regarding this period.[16][17][18][19]

Scientific evidence

Queen's University of Belfast, shows abnormally little growth in Irish oak in 536 and another sharp drop in 542, after a partial recovery.[20] Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica show evidence of substantial sulfate deposits in around 534 ± 2, which is evidence of an extensive acidic dust veil.[21]

Possible explanations

It was originally theorized that the climatic changes of AD 536 were caused by either volcanic eruptions (a phenomenon known as "volcanic winter") or impact events (meteorite or comet).[22][23][24]

In 2015, revision of polar ice core chronologies dated sulfate deposits and a cryptotephra layer to the exact year AD 536 (previously dated to AD 529 before revision).[25] This is strong evidence that a large explosive volcanic eruption caused the observed dimming and cooling, removing the need for an extraterrestrial explanation,[21][25] but an impact event around this time period cannot be ruled out.[26]

The source of volcanic eruption remains to be found but several proposed volcanoes have been rejected:

Geochemical analysis of AD 536 cryptotephras distinguishes at least three synchronous eruptive events in North America.[25] Further analysis correlates one of the eruptions to a widespread Mono Craters tephra identified in northeast California.[25][36] The other two eruptions most likely originated from the eastern Aleutians and Northern Cordilleran volcanic province.[25][37]

Historic consequences

Main article: Late Antique Little Ice Age

The 536 event and ensuing famine have been suggested as an explanation for the deposition of

Fimbulwinter and Ragnarök are theorised to be based on the cultural memory of the event.[40]

A book written by

Teotihuacán.[15] In 2000, a 3BM Television production (for WNET and Channel Four) capitalised upon Keys' book. The documentary, under the name Catastrophe! How the World Changed, was broadcast in the US as part of PBS's Secrets of the Dead series.[41]

However, Keys and Wohletz's ideas lack mainstream acceptance. Reviewing Keys' book, British archaeologist Ken Dark commented that "much of the apparent evidence presented in the book is highly debatable, based on poor sources or simply incorrect. [...] Nonetheless, both the global scope and the emphasis on the 6th century AD as a time of wide-ranging change are notable, and the book contains some obscure information that will be new to many. However, it fails to demonstrate its central thesis and does not offer a convincing explanation for the many changes discussed".[42]

The philologist Andrew Breeze in a recent book (2020) argues that some King Arthur events, including the Battle of Camlann, are historical, happening in 537 as a consequence of the famine associated with the climate change of the previous year.[43]

Historian Robert Bruton argues that this catastrophe played a role in the decline of the Roman Empire.[44]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The battle is dated 539 in some editions.

References

  1. Bibcode:2008AGUFMPP41B1454A
    . Abstract #PP41B-1454.
  2. ISBN 9780691166834
    .
  3. S2CID 222179333
    . Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  4. ^
    S2CID 189287084
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-674-99054-8
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-59486-288-5
    , gives this quote as "The Sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the Sun in eclipse".
  7. ^ Cassiodorus (1886). The Letters of Cassiodorus. Translated by Hodgkin, Thomas. London, England: Henry Frowde. pp. 518–520. See: "25. Senator, Praetorian Praefect, to his deputy Ambrosius, an Illustris."
  8. ^ Michel le Syrien (1901). Chronique de Michel le Syrien, Patriarche Jacobite d'Antoche [Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, Jacobite Patriarch of Syria] (in French). Vol. 2. Translated by Chabot, J. -B. Paris, France: Leroux. pp. 220–221. "Or, un peu auparavant, en l'an 848, il y eut un signe dans le soleil..., et le vin avait le goût de celui qui provient de raisins acides." (However, a little earlier, in the year 848 [according to the Greek calendar; AD 536/537 according to the Christian calendar], there was a sign in the sun. One had never seen it [before] and nowhere is it written that such [an event] had happened [previously] in the world. If it were not [true] that we found it recorded in most proven and credible writings, and confirmed by men worthy of belief, we would not have written it [here]; for it's difficult to conceive. So it is said that the sun was darkened and that its eclipse lasted a year and a half, that is, eighteen months. Every day it shone for about four hours and yet this light was only a feeble shadow. Everyone declared that it would not return to the state of its original light. Fruits did not ripen, and wine had the taste of what comes from sour grapes.)
  9. ^ Gaelic Irish Annals translations
  10. ^ "List of Published Texts at CELT". celt.ucc.ie.
  11. ^ "Annals of the Four Masters". celt.ucc.ie.
  12. ^ "Camlan | Robbins Library Digital Projects". Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59486-288-5
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0-224-07369-1
    .
  15. ^
    ISBN 978-0-345-40876-1
    .
  16. ISSN 0148-0227
    .
  17. S2CID 4233649
    .
  18. ISSN 0084-6597
    .
  19. JSTOR 4128751
    .
  20. The Holocene
    , fig. 3, p. 215.
  21. ^
    S2CID 54703352. Archived from the original
    on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
  22. ISBN 978-0-7134-8352-9
    .
  23. S2CID 121589992
    .
  24. ^ MacIntyre, Ferren (2002). "Simultaneous Settlement of Indo-Pacific Extrema?". Rapa Nui Journal. 16 (2): 96–104.
  25. ^
    S2CID 4462058
    .
  26. S2CID 129953699
    .
  27. S2CID 4233649
    .
  28. S2CID 132032440
    .
  29. S2CID 54647517
    .
  30. Bibcode:2010AGUFM.V13C2370D
    .
  31. S2CID 202190161
    .
  32. PMID 32989145
    .
  33. ^
    S2CID 165543389
    .
  34. ^ https://www.science.org/content/article/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive
  35. S2CID 219672090
    .
  36. S2CID 181849906
    .
  37. ISSN 1814-9324
    .
  38. ^ Axboe, Morten (2001). "Året 536". Skalk (4): 28–32.
  39. Medieval Archaeology. 43: 186–188. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  40. ISBN 91-44-00551-2
    (first published 1961) among others, refer to the climate change theory.
  41. ISBN 978-1-84171-074-7
    .
  42. ISSN 1357-4442. Archived from the original
    on 25 February 2006. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  43. S2CID 243164764
    .
  44. ^ Burton, Robert (7 April 2019). The Role of Climate Change in the Decline of the Roman Empire. Capstone Paper. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  45. ISSN 0148-0227
    .

Further reading

External links
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