What are the consequences for humanity of the eruption of a supervolcano.
Throughout history, the Yellowstone volcano has erupted three times. It first happened about 2 million years ago. Then, as a result of the eruption, the mountain ranges disintegrated, and volcanic ash covered a quarter of the territory. North America.
Emissions of magma rose to a height of 50 kilometers. The second eruption happened more than a million years ago, and 640 thousand years have passed since the third. It was much weaker than the first, but as a result of it, the top of the volcano collapsed and the well-known caldera of the Yellowstone volcano was formed.
yellowstone national park
One of the geysers in Yellowstone Park
Given the frequency of previous eruptions, which happened on average once every 600 thousand years, many talk about the possibility that the next one could happen in the near future.
If this actually happens, the consequences can be unpredictable. Depending on the intensity of the eruption, they can be either not very serious or catastrophic, which can lead to the death of thousands of people and the onset of a volcanic winter. The latter can happen if ash and sulfur gases spread across the globe and prevent the sun's rays from reaching the surface of the planet. As a result, humanity will not be able to grow plants on Earth, so there will be little food for the population of the planet.
However, how real the threat is, it is now difficult to say for sure. It is known that during 2018 the activity of geysers, which is directly related to the processes in the magma, increased significantly in the region. For example, the world's highest geyser, Steamboat, erupted 32 times in 2018 and broke its own record. Prior to this, the maximum number of eruptions in one year was 29.
However, in general, the functioning of geysers is influenced by three factors, among which, in addition to the processes in the volcano, there is also the amount of water that enters them and the structure of the mountain channels through which it moves.
According to Michael Poland, head of the Yellowstone Volcanic Observatory, there have been no significant geological changes inside the volcano in recent times. However, the previous few years have been unusually snowy, so the reason for the anomalous activity of geysers is most likely an increase in the amount of water flowing to them.
However, it is quite difficult to say with certainty what processes are taking place inside the volcano. And although many scientists believe the possibility of a volcanic eruption is still unlikely, NASA scientists have already created a strategy on how to prevent a catastrophe.
How NASA seeks to cope with the volcano
A volcano the size of Yellowstone is a huge heat generator, the power of which can be compared to six industrial power plants. The more the temperature inside the volcano rises, the more gases it produces. As a result, the magma melts intensively, and the area above the magmatic storeroom begins to rise. When the temperature reaches a certain point, an explosion becomes inevitable.
The NASA space agency in 2017 created a strategy that can help humanity avoid a possible catastrophe. It is to cool the volcano before it becomes a real danger. This is planned to be done with water.
yellowstone national park
Yellowstone Volcanic Caldera
However, to implement this in practice is quite difficult and expensive. In addition, according to Brian Wilcox of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, using so much water just to cool a volcano is a rather controversial decision, because there are regions in the world where it is sorely lacking.
The most effective way to solve the problem is to drill two holes on both sides of the volcano and pour water under strong pressure into it. This will gradually reduce the temperature of the magma. It is noteworthy that if you create a hole on top of the magma reservoir, this, on the contrary, can provoke an eruption.
There is also no guarantee that these actions will have a long-term effect. However, NASA scientists hope the plan will encourage other practitioners to look for new ways to prevent the danger.
Other dangerous volcanoes
Yellowstone volcano is not the only one whose eruption could have catastrophic consequences. In total, there are about 20 supervolcanoes on Earth. The eruption of one of them happens on average once every 100 thousand years.
One of them is located in the Long Valley, USA. Its caldera is 32 kilometers long and 17 kilometers wide. Under its surface, it has so much magma that its eruption can be equivalent to the one that happened 767 thousand years ago - then 584 cubic kilometers of matter entered the atmosphere. For comparison, during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Geles, which was one of the largest in the 20th century, this number was only 1.2 kilometers.
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Among the most dangerous supervolcanoes also Indonesian, located under Lake Toba. It last erupted 74,000 years ago. Then this led to a significant cooling, which lasted as long as 10 years. Areas in Indonesia and India were covered with a layer of ash, and the population of both people and animals was significantly reduced.
Another powerful volcano is also located in New Zealand under Lake Taupo. It first began erupting 300,000 years ago. Taupo accounted for the last volcanic eruption, which happened about 26.5 thousand years ago and threw about 1200 cubic kilometers of pumice and ash into the atmosphere. Since then, there have been 28 smaller eruptions.
There are also supervolcanoes in Japan and Russia. However, the only one that threatens Europe is the Phlegraean Fields. Its caldera is located near Naples. It has an area of about 100 square kilometers. It includes 24 craters and volcanic hills, among which the Solfatara volcano.
Since 2005, scientists have noticed that subsurface pressure in the Phlegraean Fields region has begun to increase. In 2012, they raised the threat level from green to yellow and began to monitor the area more closely. The last time the volcano erupted was in 1538. Then it happened for eight days. As a result of the eruption, the volcanic cone of Monte Nuovo was formed.
- Volcanic winter- cooling of the planetary climate due to atmospheric pollution with ash during a particularly large volcanic eruption, which entails the emergence of an anti-greenhouse effect. Ash and sulfur gases, from which sulfuric acid aerosols are formed, after ejection 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 violent eruptions triggered the onset of 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, probably 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
Milankovic cycles (named after the Serbian astrophysicist Milutin Milankovic) 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 of the 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 the earth's crust is constantly reconfigured: its blocks move relative to each other, which leads to the displacement, collision and disintegration of 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.
History scientific research climate change has its origins in the early 19th century, when scientists first became aware of 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 greenhouse gases can 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 experience cycles of glaciation 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 ...
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 gigantic forming lava dome inside a half-submerged supervolcano whose eruption will release 40 cubic kilometers of magma. Such an explosion could cause upheavals the likes of which have not been seen in this region for more than seven thousand years - and thus kill tens of millions of people. 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 Akahoy near Japanese island Kyushu. As a result, an almost 20-kilometer underwater gorge was formed, called the Kikai caldera. In the lava flows of this cataclysm disappeared ancient civilization Jomon, the forerunner of modern Japanese. 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 height. 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 magma chamber of the volcano 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. IN last time one erupted in 2010 - the ash from the muzzle of the Icelandic Eyyafyatlayokudl covered almost all 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 - Elbrus, highest point 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, the lava will melt the glaciers and the Caucasian rivers - Baksan, Malka, Kuban, Terek, Kuma and Podkumok - will overflow their banks, flooding hundreds of settlements in all 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.
The Year Without Summer is a nickname for 1816, during which Western Europe and North America experienced unusually cold weather. Until today, it 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 translates as "thousand eight hundred frozen to death."
In March 1816, the temperature continued to be winter. In April and May there was an unnatural amount of rain and hail. In June and July it was freezing every night in America. Up to a meter of snow fell in New York and the northeastern United States. Germany was repeatedly tormented by strong storms, many rivers (including the Rhine) overflowed their banks. In Switzerland, it snowed every month. The unusual cold led to a catastrophic crop failure. In the spring of 1817, grain prices rose tenfold, and famine broke out among the population. Tens of thousands of Europeans, still suffering from the devastation of the Napoleonic Wars, emigrated to America.
Frozen Thames, 1814
It all started in 1812 - two volcanoes “turned on”, La Soufriere (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.
Only in 1920, the American climate researcher William Humphreys found an explanation for the "year without summer". He linked climate change to the Tambora volcano eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the most violent volcanic eruption ever observed, directly costing the lives of 71,000 people, which is largest number deaths from a volcanic eruption in the history of mankind. Its eruption in April 1815 was a magnitude seven on the Volcanic Eruption Scale (VEI), and a massive 150 km³ of ash into the atmosphere caused a volcanic winter effect in the northern hemisphere that lasted for several years.
Tambora volcano eruption 1815
But here is the weirdness. In 1816, the problem with the climate happened precisely "in the entire Northern Hemisphere." But Tambora is located in the southern hemisphere, 1000 km from the equator. The fact is that in the Earth's atmosphere at altitudes above 20 km (in the stratosphere) there are stable air currents along the parallels. Dust ejected into the stratosphere to a height of 43 km should have been distributed along the equator with the dust belt shifting to the southern hemisphere. And what about the US and Europe?
Egypt should have been frozen Central Africa, Central America, Brazil and finally Indonesia itself. But the weather there was very good. Interestingly, just at this time, in 1816, in Costa Rica, which is located about 1000 km north of the equator, they began to grow coffee. The reason for this was: “... the perfect alternation of rainy and dry seasons. And, constant temperature throughout the year, which favorably affects the development of coffee bushes ... "
That is, even to the north of the equator for several thousand kilometers there was prosperity. How is it, interesting to know, 150 cubic kilometers of erupted soil jumped 5 ... 8 thousand kilometers from the southern hemisphere to the northern, at an altitude of 43 kilometers, in defiance of all longitudinal stratospheric currents, without spoiling the weather for the inhabitants of Central America in the slightest? But all its terrible, photon-scattering, impenetrability, this dust brought down on Europe and North America.
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), food riots took place one after another. 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. major rivers 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 of 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.
.
I had a dream... Not everything in it was a dream.
The bright sun went out, and the stars
Wandering aimlessly, without rays
In space eternal; icy ground
Worn blindly in the moonless air.
The hour of the morning came and went,
But he did not bring the day after him ...
... People lived in front of the fires; thrones,
Palaces of crowned kings, huts,
The dwellings of all those who have dwellings -
The fires were built ... the cities were burning ...
... Happy were the inhabitants of those countries
Where the torches of volcanoes blazed...
The whole world lived with one timid hope ...
The forests were set on fire; but with every passing hour
And the burnt forest fell; trees
Suddenly, with a formidable crash, they collapsed ...
... The war broke out again,
Extinguished for a while...
... Terrible hunger
Tortured people...
And people died quickly...
And the world was empty;
That crowded world, mighty world
Was a dead mass, without grass, trees
Without life, time, people, movement...
That was the chaos of death.
George Noel Gordon Byron, 1816
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.
A farmer in a field with dead corn in the US state of Vermont
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(at the beginning of the 19th 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.
The 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. And this is very, very strange. Even if you spend half your life in archives and libraries, you will not find a word about bad weather in the Russian Empire in 1816. Allegedly, there was a normal harvest, the sun was shining and the grass was green. Russia, probably, is neither in the Southern nor in the Northern Hemisphere, but in some third one.
So, there was hunger and cold in Europe in 1816 ... 1819! This is a fact confirmed by many written sources. Could this bypass Russia? It could, if it concerned only the western regions of Europe. But in this case, one would definitely have to forget about the volcanic hypothesis. After all, stratospheric dust is pulled along the parallels around the entire planet.
And besides, no less fully than in Europe, the tragic events are covered in North America. But they are still separated by the Atlantic Ocean. What kind of locality are we talking about here? The event clearly affected the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia. The option when North America and Europe froze and starved for 3 years in a row, and Russia did not even notice the difference.
Thus, from 1816 to 1819, the cold really reigned in the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia, no matter what anyone says. Scientists confirm this and call the first half of the 19th century the "Little Ice Age". And here is an important question: who will suffer more from a 3-year cold, Europe or Russia? Of course, Europe will cry louder, but Russia will suffer more. And that's why. In Europe (Germany, Switzerland), the time of summer plant growth reaches 9 months, and in Russia - about 4 months. This means that in Russia it was not only 2 times less likely to grow sufficient supplies for the winter, but also 2.5 times more likely to die of starvation during a longer winter. And if in Europe the population suffered, then in Russia the situation was 4 times worse, including mortality.
Moreover, it was the territory of Russia that was probably the source of climatic troubles for the entire hemisphere. And in order to hide this (someone needed it), all references to this were removed or reworked.
But if you think about it, how could it be? The entire northern hemisphere is suffering from climatic anomalies and does not know what it is. The first scientific version appears only after 100 years, and that does not stand up to criticism. But the cause of the events must be located precisely at our latitudes. And if in America and Europe this reason is not observed, then where can it be if not in Russia? Nowhere else. And just then the Russian Empire pretends that it does not know what it is about at all. And we did not see, and did not hear, and in general everything is in order with us. Familiar behavior, and very suspicious.
However, one should take into account the missing estimated population of Russia in the 19th century, numbering in the tens of millions. They could die both from the very unknown cause that caused climate change, and from severe consequences in the form of hunger, cold and disease. And also let's not forget about the traces of widespread large-scale fires that destroyed the Siberian forests around that time. As a result, the expression "secular spruce" (centennial) bears the imprint of rare antiquity, although the normal life of this tree is 400 ... 600 years
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 upper layer 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, the high volcanic activity- That's not all. "Oil to the fire" added our star - the Sun. The years of intensive 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 earlier or later. 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 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, the weakly active Sun, as well as the cooling of oceanic 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 an industrially undeveloped human society, these three "cold" degrees caused a terrifying catastrophe on a global scale.
Flooding in the suburbs
Paris Europe. In 1816 and the two following years, European countries, still reeling from the Napoleonic Wars, became the worst place on Earth - they were hit by cold, famine, epidemics and an acute shortage of fuel. There was no harvest at all for two years. In England, Germany and France, feverishly buying up grain all over the world (mainly from the Russian Empire), food riots took place one after another.
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 of 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.
A farmer in a field with dead corn in the U.S. state of 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 (at the beginning of the 19th 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, engulfing 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 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 in the 18th century 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 of the 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 strictly 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, 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.
