Volcanic winter. Volcanic winter and famine. What threatens humanity with the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano Other dangerous volcanoes

In chapter

In early September, NASA recalled the threat posed by the most dangerous supervolcano on Earth - Yellowstone, which has long been threatening to wake up. This one of the largest unextinguished volcanoes on the planet has a crater (or caldera) measuring 55 by 72 kilometers, filled with red-hot magma. If there is an eruption of Yellowstone, then the lava will rise high into the sky, the ash behind a short time will cover nearby territories with a 15-cm layer within a radius of up to 5 thousand kilometers ...

Only in the first minutes, experts believe, the volcano will kill about 200 thousand Americans, in the following days the number of victims will go to tens of millions of lives, since the North American continent may sink under water from an explosion. In a few days, the territory of the United States may become uninhabited due to toxic air. As a result, on Earth for decades there will come global cooling, 99% of all life on the planet can become victims of the "volcanic winter" ... What is happening today with the volcano?

The Yellowstone caldera is a depression filled with red-hot magma, located in three US states: Wyoming (the main part), Idaho and Montana. According to volcanologists, Yellowstone erupted 2 million years ago, then 1.3 million years ago and in last time- 630 thousand years ago, and until recently it was believed that the next eruption may not be earlier than in 20 thousand years.

The activity of the volcano increased after solar eclipse

However, in 2002, three new geysers with healing water suddenly clogged, a sharp rise in soil was discovered, the number of small earthquakes became more frequent, then bison ran from the Yellowstone Biosphere Reserve, the release of magmatic gases increased ... Scientists became worried, began to refine their calculations, and suddenly it turned out that the catastrophe may happen between 2012 and 2016, but, thank God, their predictions again did not come true.

The activity of the Yellowstone volcano increased sharply after the recent solar eclipse in the United States. Only in August of this year, about 900 small earthquakes occurred in the reserve, which can be compared with a two-year norm, say, five years ago. In total, for several months of this year, as of September 10, 2357 small earthquakes with a magnitude of 3-4 points were recorded in the Yellowstone area. earth in this national park over the past six months she has risen by 2 meters ... All this, according to experts, is very bad symptoms.

The last time Yellowstone erupted was 630,000 years ago, and until recently it was believed that the next eruption could be no earlier than 20,000 years later. However, volcanologists have changed the forecast

Now, pessimistic assessments of the causes of seismic impacts are superimposed on the alarming data on the supervolcano itself. great strength in Mexico. Earthquakes in this country mean that the movement of tectonic plates has resumed in the San Andreas Fault (900 kilometers long), which arose at the place where the Latin American plate, Juan de Fuca, crawls under the North American plate. This, seismologists believe, will inevitably lead to colossal tremors that will be much more powerful than the recent September ones that happened in Mexico (8 on the Richter scale), which, in turn, could become a detonator for Yellowstone. The general picture of the perception of the likelihood of a supervolcano awakening was also aggravated by four powerful solar flares that occurred in September.

The Americans were also scared by the publication in one of the Russian publications. One of our military academicians, Konstantin Sivkov, published an article in which he wrote that our country should respond to the deployment of American missile defense systems in Eastern Europe by creating missiles with an increased nuclear charge. According to the author, an extra-large caliber can be used to blow up the same Yellowstone, and then one missile will be enough to destroy the enemy on his territory.

Failed to hide

Since March 2014, the USGS has been banned from issuing information about Yellowstone and is required to mix information about seismic activity in the United States. In August 2016 with sensational statement US President Barack Obama called September 2016 the month of preparation for global catastrophes. Obama suggested that people carry with them the means to survive, documents, insurance, and that factories throughout the country be ready to work in conditions close to extreme. He also noted that two websites have been created, Ready.gov and Listo.gov, with information about emergencies. By order of President Obama, signed on August 31, 2016, the disaster preparedness program was completed by the end of September. So the explosion of a supervolcano is expected at any moment.

By its power, by the way, it will be equivalent to the explosion of hundreds of Hiroshima bombs, which will immediately sweep away two-thirds of the United States and part of Canada, and the tsunami will wash away the coastal regions of Spain, Portugal, England, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Korea, China and Russia.

However, all other countries will also suffer. The area of the hole in the earth's crust after such an explosion can reach 4,000 square kilometers. A “volcanic winter” will set in with an average temperature of minus 25 degrees Celsius, in some places the air temperature is expected to reach minus 50. In addition to such a radical climate change, the danger is that sulfur rains will fall: the sulfur from the bowels of the volcano will combine with moisture and oxygen air. plant will die and animal world, and the few people who manage to take refuge in shelters will receive a planet that is lifeless and poisoned for many centuries ... An ozone hole is formed over the USA, and the Sun will burn out what is still growing and moving. The only region that can survive is the central part of Eurasia. Most people, according to scientists, will survive in Siberia and some regions of the European part of Russia, as well as Ukraine, located on earthquake-resistant platforms, the most distant from the epicenter of the volcanic eruption and tsunami.

reference
The Yellowstone Biosphere Reserve (USA) is located on top of one of the largest unextinguished volcanoes on the planet, it is included in the UNESCO list. The reserve is famous for its waterfalls, lakes, rich flora and fauna, as well as stunning landscapes. There are about 3 thousand geysers and hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, dozens of waterfalls. The petrified forest attracts special attention. By the way, grizzly bears also live here. Every year, 3 million people come here to admire these beauties.

Why didn't the US prepare for disaster?

Some may think that the United States is not ready for natural disasters which are long predictable. But it's not. In the United States, they relied not on preventing a volcanic eruption, but on saving part of the population, apparently the most valuable, that is, its elite - industrial, military, and also financial power. The United States government and those who govern it, not relying on the intelligence of scientists, considered that it was impossible to save all Americans (and this is more than 300 million people) centrally, and therefore the United States last years hushed up the problem, which is global, and now they suddenly began to talk about emergency measures. Since the American government is convinced that an explosion is inevitable, there are not many proposals from American science to neutralize the volcano, but more specifically, only two, but, alas, both can “wake up” the volcano.

First, it is proposed to release the pressure of the growing magma by detonating a low-yield nuclear device in the weakest point of the caldera (the proposal was not accepted). The second idea is to cool the volcano from the inside by directing streams of water under high pressure to the bottom of the volcano, followed by pumping hot water to the surface. According to calculations, it is enough to cool the volcano by 35% to eliminate the threat for a while, but this option is extremely water-intensive. And if you build a geothermal station, then the cost of electricity will be $0.1 per kilowatt-hour. And it will work for tens of thousands of years. NASA is asking for just $3.5 billion for this work. (Also unsafe.)

What have Americans been doing for the last 20 years? Preparing ... "landing sites" for the elite

* IN Latin America The largest US clans are buying up millions of hectares of land - Argentina, Brazil, South Africa received payments of $10 billion each. More addresses - Australia and New Zealand where the price of real estate rises in geometric progression. The pro-American country of Liberia, a small state in western Africa, has suddenly blossomed, as a lot of money has been flowing into this country for a number of years. There is a network of excellent roads, airports and, allegedly, an extensive system of bunkers in which the American elite can sit out for several years until the external situation stabilizes.

* The United States created the "Doomsday Vault" - a safe in the rocks of Svalbard to store the seeds of most plant species. The storage is designed for 4.5 million seeds. This is enough to restore one or another species in the event of its complete disappearance. The repository is located at an altitude of 130 meters above sea level, which excludes the possibility of its flooding during the melting of the Arctic ice and the ice of Greenland. Its walls are strong enough to withstand the impact of nuclear warheads. Icebreaking, army, aviation, submarine groups of the US Armed Forces are deployed around. (By the way, the same Federal Cryostorage of Plant Seeds is located in Russia - in the Yakut permafrost. - Ed.).

* Before it began, the President of that country's "attacks" on American TNCs, whose main production facilities are located outside the United States, ceased, as the government quickly realized the danger of these demands.

* An underground shelter was built 25 kilometers from Denver, in the very center of the country (in terms of area - two Manhattans), on a plateau, behind mountains that protect against tsunamis. The construction is disguised as the reconstruction of the airport. Judging by the volume of excavated soil, the complex is designed for several hundred thousand people.

* The United States did not begin to curtail its military bases abroad, there are now more than 700 of them, and military spending on them is greater than that of all other countries combined. The infrastructure created on these bases makes it possible to quickly transfer additional contingents to anywhere in the world, as well as to receive a significant number of additional inhabitants.

* In China, "ghost towns" have been built far from the coast, on the plateau ... Now there are more than 20 of them. The estimated population is up to half a million in each. The real population now is from 1 to 30-40 thousand. In the event of an apocalypse, the Celestial Empire intends to save some of its people and specialists from America and Europe in these cities.

* Many experts are sure that in the USA, in Fort Knox, there is no physical gold for a long time, both American and deposited. The American Rothschilds are now leaving Europe and are betting on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, which will be the global regulator of gold and silver prices. Therefore, the gold pledged by China in 1940-1950 was returned to China. The Rothschilds have also transferred their gold to Shanghai, which is supposed to be the financial center of the world instead of New York and London.

* It is very likely that the US elite has stopped investing in new construction: cement in this country is now consumed 40 times less than China in comparable economies. They stopped building new nuclear power plants, practically no new production facilities are being built, but the extraction of shale oil and gas is developing, destroying nature and polluting water sources. The US national debt is now more than 20 trillion dollars. All this speaks of the cooling of American business towards their own country in view of the real danger of the death of the United States.

Russia has unconventional solutions
Russian science is hungry today, many worthy people have left, nevertheless, our scientists still have solutions for Yellowstone, including those from the times of the USSR:
1. If the Americans had told the world about the problems of Yellowstone earlier, then, probably, our country could offer a Russian development -
pulsed magnetohydrodynamic generator (MHD generator). It was developed in 1970–1980 by scientists from the institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Academician Evgeny Velikhov to study rocks in oil and gas fields by applying a powerful electric pulse deep into the Earth. As it turned out, this process provoked small earthquakes, which discharged the tension of the rocks and prevented the occurrence of large earthquakes. The generator is installed on the machine, moves to any point and generates electrical energy in the right place in a pulsed mode. The current is supplied to the earth's crust to a depth of 5–10 kilometers and changes its state. In total, several devices of this series were produced in the USSR, several of them were comparable in power to the Dneproges!
2. Creation of a volcanic steam generator high pressure(VPVR) is possible when a balance is reached between volcanic and human activity. In Russia, HPVD was patented back in 2011. It is designed to prevent volcanic eruptions by creating a crater-channel hydraulic plug, which prevents the mixing of hydrogen and water coming out of the depths and the explosion of this mixture. The prototypes of the HPHP are the drilling device of the Kola ultra-deep well and devices of Russian geothermal power plants operating in pressurized hot water fields. Experimental models of geothermal power plants are now operating on hot dry rocks (designed for heat supply and electricity generation). The idea is protected by six RF patents. The method has limitations. By the way, according to experts, if humanity uses only geothermal energy, it will take 41 million years before the temperature of the Earth's interior drops by half a degree.
3. If an eruption occurs. A volcanic cloud, like an ordinary rain cloud, consists of 50–85% water vapor. Therefore, our scientists can propose the use of Russian technology for the precipitation of clouds by introducing into them using ground-based irrigation installations and/or directly into the cloud by installations placed on aircraft of certain chemical compositions (copper sulfide and lead iodide turned out to be the most effective), which will precipitate water-steam part of a volcanic eruption and cause precipitation to fall within a radius of up to 750 kilometers, and not spread around the world. To obtain precipitation from a single cloud with a volume of 10 cubic kilometers, only 7 to 50 grams of copper sulfide (CuS) or 10 grams of lead iodide (PbJ) are needed. The idea is protected by a RF patent. True, it needs experimental verification. If the effectiveness of the technology is proven, then in this way it will be possible to save the planet from the global “volcanic winter”. The costs of this project are incomparable with the losses from the estimated release of 1000-2800 cubic kilometers of ash and gases from an exploding volcano.
Will only the Americans show interest in the proposals of Russian scientists? Surely our specialists have other interesting and effective suggestions on how to tame the volcano. "Our Version" is ready to talk about them.

RUMORS
European United States
According to Ukrainian publications, a rumor has recently roamed that Hillary Clinton, in one of her campaign speeches, when talking about a hypothetically possible catastrophe after the Yellowstone eruption, allegedly stated: “We should not abandon Ukraine as the most favorable for the global American relocation, because of the position of Russia and will continue to coordinate international pressure to return Crimea to a single territorial space as of February 2014... Thus, we will be able to expand the necessary living space so as not to feel cramped and have the prospect of further industrial and economic development ".
On the question of where, in her opinion, in this case, the Ukrainians themselves would go, the presidential candidate allegedly noted that "the inhabitants will be happy to have the opportunity to become citizens of the new European United States." In these messages, generously circulated on the Internet, to which Our Version is skeptical, Clinton, it turns out, publicly insulted Ukraine. The presidential candidate is credited with saying that “Ukraine, being in advantageous territory, is a weak and sick state and its authorities have not been able to effectively use its resources for 25 years, while Europeans and Americans will use them more reasonably.” The more monstrous the fiction, the more those who believe in it: judging by the comments in in social networks, many have no doubt: the true reason for what is happening today in Ukraine is precisely that its lands have been laid eyes on from across the ocean, where it may soon explode ...

March 6, 2018, 12:56

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 final reason for the mini version ice age 1816-1818 became 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, the largest volcanic death toll in human history. 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, 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. 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(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.

Russian empire.

Three ruinous and hardest years for the countries of Europe, North America and Asia on the territory of Russia passed surprisingly gently - 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. A variant 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 in terms of 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 it does not hold water. 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

Yellowstone volcano could kill billions of people. Volcanologists warn about this.

The eruptions of very powerful volcanoes threaten not only people living nearby, but can also globally change the climate on the entire planet. The effect, when the Earth's atmosphere is clouded with ash and because of this, colds come, is called a volcanic winter.

Wikia.com

This phenomenon can be compared to nuclear winter, only nature is to blame for him, and not the military ambitions of man.

There have been several catastrophic volcanic eruptions in history that have led to severe frosts and famine. But perhaps the worst volcanic winter is yet to come.

Volcanic winter

Scientists cannot accurately predict the consequences of a particular eruption. So, when the Eyjafjallaeküll volcano woke up in Iceland and covered half the world with a cloud of ash, many feared that the climate would change. However, the volcanic winter did not come.

Strictly speaking, the effect of a volcanic winter appears with every eruption. But it is truly felt only when a very powerful volcano begins to throw out ash and sulfur.

When a volcano erupts, aerosols of sulfuric acid are formed, which reach the stratosphere and then envelop the entire planet like a blanket. The sun does not penetrate this veil, and the climate becomes much colder.

The most famous volcanic winter in history was the so-called "year without summer".

A year without summer

In April 1815, Mount Tambora erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. It became the most powerful eruption in the history of mankind. The explosion of the volcano was heard for 2 thousand km.

About 12 thousand people who lived nearby died from lava flows, stones and powerful air vortices, as well as ash, under the weight of which the roofs of houses collapsed. More than 60 thousand more people died a little later from hunger and disease, as the ashes destroyed the crops. The Tambor people with their culture disappeared completely, the Tambor language died out.

However, the consequences of the volcanic eruption did not end there. The first few months, while the ash spread across the planet, there were no significant changes.

But in March 1816, spring did not come to the northern hemisphere. The temperature continued to be winter. In April and May, Europe and the United States were literally flooded with rain and hail. May frosts destroyed crops. In June and July people suffered from night frosts. In August, even in southern Pennsylvania, the rivers froze. In summer, the temperature jumped from 35 degrees to zero. In Switzerland, it snowed every month.

That summer, the English writer Mary Shelley was hiding from the cold with friends in a villa near Lake Geneva. Then she wrote her "Frankenstein".

1816 was nicknamed "the year without a summer" and also "one thousand eight hundred frozen to death." Due to the volcanic winter, the temperature of the planet dropped by 2.5 degrees Celsius in a year. Until now, the "year without summer" remains the coldest year since the beginning of documenting meteorological observations.

Unusual cold led to crop failure. In the spring of 1817, grain prices increased 10 times, and famine broke out among the population.

prehistoric disaster

But even the Tambora volcano cannot be compared in terms of the power of the eruption with the Toba volcano. It was a colossal catastrophe, the equal of which on the planet did not happen. It only happened in prehistoric times.

Volcano Toba, located in the region of Indonesia, exploded about 70 thousand years ago. Masses of ash thrown out by the volcano eclipsed the sun by 75% and lowered the average temperature by as much as 11 degrees.

Because of the volcanic winter, the first people died. The then population of the Earth, according to scientists, could reach one or even several million, but due to the consequences of the eruption of the Toba volcano, only 3 to 20 thousand people survived.

In addition, during that period experienced a catastrophic reduction in the population of many animals.

From Peru to Russia

IN early XVII century, the world entered the coldest phase of the Little Ice Age. In our view, the ice age is usually associated with mammoths, but global cooling also took place in medieval Europe.

The Little Ice Age began as the slowing down of the Gulf Stream coincided with extremely low solar activity. Added to these cataclysms was the eruption of the Huaynaputina volcano in February 1600.

The eruption of Huaynaputina, located in the Andes in Peru, immediately killed 1.5 thousand local Indians, but the ensuing volcanic winter led to even greater casualties.

The global temperature has dropped by 1-2 degrees Celsius. Greenland, which got its name when it was still the Green Land, became covered with glaciers, and the Vikings left the island. Sledding along the Thames, Danube and Moscow River.

In 1601-1603, unprecedented frosts, snowfalls and heavy rains led to crop failures in Russia. The Great Famine has come. The price of rye has grown tenfold. Bread became too expensive not only for the poor, but also for wealthier people. Corpses lay on the roads. The starving began to eat cats, dogs, grass. Some of those who died of starvation had dung in their mouths. Cannibalism became commonplace, children ate parents, and parents ate children.

The situation improved a little in 1604, which finally turned out to be fruitful. But by this time, Russia was completely exhausted by famine, the victims of which were about half a million people. The robbers strayed into gangs of several hundred people. The Troubles began - a series of uprisings, betrayals, coups and wars.

Lucky flooding Iceland with lava

On the morning of July 8, 1783, the Laki volcano began to erupt in Iceland. Colossal lava flows, which have never been seen in history, poured onto the island, they flooded an area of 565 km². The flow length exceeded 130 km. The volcano continued to eject lava, rocks and ash for eight months.

Toxic compounds of fluorine and sulfur dioxide killed more than half of Iceland's livestock - hundreds of thousands of sheep, horses and cows. In addition, ashes covered pastures, and animals died from injuries to internal organs after eating herbs with sharp mineral particles. The lava melted huge masses of ice, and floods began. A fifth of the population of Iceland died of starvation: more than 10 thousand people.

The Laki eruption triggered a volcanic winter that killed millions more people around the world. In the summer of 1783, the sky of Europe and North America was covered with a luminous fog that did not let the sun's rays through. The drop in temperature led to crop failure and famine the following year.

At the same time, in North Africa the temperature, on the contrary, rose, and drought reigned. The Nile became shallow, the crops were not irrigated, and in Egypt people died en masse from a terrible famine.

Scientists have managed to explain the connection between the Laki volcano, cooling in Europe and warming in Egypt. The fact is that the cold summer in the north has reduced the contrast of temperatures over land and ocean, and this is the driving force behind the monsoons that bring rain to North Africa.

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... Three years that changed humanity forever.

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.

On April 10, 1815, the Tambora volcano began to erupt on the island of Sumbawa (Indonesia) - 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- That's 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 went 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. However, the echo of the events of three years without a summer still touched Russia. In 1830-1831, two waves of cholera epidemic swept through the Russian Empire, the new kind which arose in 1816 - in Indian Bengal. 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 unfolded during this period have influenced many generations of earthlings, including you, blog readers.

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 evenings in the fireplace room of Villa Diodati, rented for a vacation by Lord Byron. 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.

Opium Wars.

The English fleet is attacking Chinese warships.......Three years without a summer have seriously hit Chinese farmers in the southern provinces of the country, who traditionally grow rice. 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 increased 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. 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).

Bike

Observing the difficult situation with oats for horses that developed in 1816, the German inventor Carl von Dres decided to build a new mode of 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.

Boldin 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 overflow, and 14 years later brought to the Russian Empire, the descendants "owe" 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.

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.

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 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, less solar energy was reaching our planet 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 thermal energy of the Sun, 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 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.

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 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 in the 18th century was rumored to have investigated the effect of a 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 categorically forbade the cultivation of opium poppy, farmers ignored this ban (bribed officials).

By 1820, the number of opium addicts in China had increased 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. Observing the difficult situation with oats for horses that developed in 1816, the German inventor Carl von Dres decided to build a new mode of 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 that abruptly gave way to continuous autumn rains and caused the Ganges to overflow, and 14 years later brought into the Russian Empire, the descendants "owe" the appearance of Pushkin's brightest works - "Eugene Onegin", "The Tale of the Priest and His worker Balda”, etc.