THE location of a mystery volcano that caused “devastating famines” nearly 200 years ago has finally been found, scientists say.
A massive eruption that took place in 1831 flooded the atmosphere with “sulphurous gases”.
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And scientists say that this reflected so much sunlight that it caused temperatures to plummet, crop failures, and famines.
The event has been linked to “societal upheaval”, but scientists classified it as a mystery eruption because they didn’t know the location of the volcano.
But experts at the University of St Andrews say they’ve tracked the eruption down to an island off the coast of Russia.
They analysed ice core records from the event in a way that wasn’t previously possible.
And they say they found a “perfect fingerprint match” of the ash deposits.
“Only in recent years have we developed the ability to extract microscopic ash shards from polar ice cores and conduct detailed chemical analyses on them,” said Dr Will Hutchison, of the University of St Andrews.
“These shards are incredibly minute, roughly one-tenth the diameter of a human hair.”
The ice core deposits were dated and matched to the Zavaritskii volcano.
It’s on the remote and uninhabited island of Simushir, which is part of the long chain of Kuril Islands off the coast of Russia and Japan.
Scientists say that during the Cold War, the Soviets were using Simushir as a secret nuclear submarine base.
The vessels would be docked in a flooded volcanic crater.
Now, years on, scientists are able to find out much more about the volcano and its eruption.
“We analysed the chemistry of the ice at a very high temporal resolution,” Hutchison explained.
“This allowed us to pinpoint the precise timing of the eruption to spring-summer 1831, confirm that it was highly explosive, and then extract the tiny shards of ash.
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“Finding the match took a long time and required extensive collaboration with colleagues from Japan and Russia, who sent us samples collected from these remote volcanoes decades ago.”
He continued: “The moment in the lab when we analysed the two ashes together, one from the volcano and one from the ice core, was a genuine eureka moment.
“I couldn’t believe the numbers were identical. After this, I spent a lot of time delving into the age and size of the eruption in Kuril records to truly convince myself that the match was real.”
The Kuril Islands are described as an “extremely productive” volcanic region.
How do volcanoes erupt?
- Volcanoes are formed when a hot liquid like substance called magma breaks through the Earth’s crust
- Once the magma reaches the surface and gushes into the air, this is known as a volcanic eruption
- Volcanic eruptions can release lava, rocks, dust, volcanic ash and toxic gases into the atmosphere
- Some eruptions are huge and kill lots of people but other eruptions can be small flows of lava that are easily avoided
- Volcanoes normally give off warning sides before an eruption occurs, such as tremors or gases, and this gives people nearby time to evacuate
And even though the 1831 eruption was caused by a very remote island, it still had “significant global impact”.
During his 1831 summer trip through the alps, German composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn described the situation at the time: “Desolate weather, it has rained again all night and all morning, it is as cold as in winter, there is already deep snow on the nearest hills…”
Now the 200-year-old mystery has finally been solved, but scientists are concerned that we’re not ready for the next big eruptions.
Scientists at the University of St Andrews say we must identify the sources of more mystery eruptions so that they can be mapped and monitored.
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“There are so many volcanoes like this, which highlights how difficult it will be to predict when or where the next large-magnitude eruption might occur,” Hutchison said.
“As scientists and as a society, we need to consider how to coordinate an international response when the next large eruption, like the one in 1831, happens.”
The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
