In May 1110, the moon was not visible in the sky for several nights in a row, and people recorded this event as a “lunar eclipse” at that Time. Although many astronomers have since discussed this “lunar eclipse” event as too strange, no one has discovered the real cause of the event.
Now, a thousand years later, a recent study published in the journal Nature has linked the chemical records found inside the core of the glacier, the analysis of tree chronology, and the historical records to discover that the event was probably the result of a forgotten disaster a thousand years ago.
Correction of Greenland ice core analysis
A large volcanic eruption event would cause a large amount of sulfide aerosols to rise to the atmospheric stratosphere and fall back to the ground after a period of time, usually remaining within the glacier. Therefore, by analyzing the composition of ice cores deep in the glacier, scientists can infer the age of volcanic eruption events.
Previous studies have suggested that the sulfides in the deep extracts of Greenland glaciers are the product of the 1104 eruption of the Icelandic volcano Hekla. Hekla is one of Iceland’s most famous volcanoes, shaped like an upside-down ship and known locally as the “Gates of Hell.
But another study published in the journal Nature in 2015, which looked at ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica, revised the age of the sulfides and concluded that they came from volcanic events between 1108 and 1113.
If this is the case, then the eruptions are not from the Hecla volcano, but from other large volcanic eruptions that scientists have not yet noticed.
In order to find this unknown catastrophe, the new study reviewed a large number of historical sources, looking for records of abnormal weather and lunar eclipses and other phenomena recorded around the medieval period.
The mysterious “lunar eclipse” event
From NASA records, the researchers found that seven total lunar eclipses were observed in Europe between 1100 and 1120. Among them, a lunar eclipse in May 1110 looked unusual and caught the researchers’ attention. The record refers to a “particularly dark and unlit moon”.
“On the fifth night of May, the moon was still shining brightly in the sky, but after that, the moon’s brightness gradually diminished, and later, the moon was completely invisible at night.” Researchers from the Peterborough Chronicle (Peterborough Chronicle) to check the record so written.
Many astronomers have since discussed the strange lunar eclipse, but no one has linked it to the volcanic eruption that caused thick aerosols to block the sky for hundreds of years afterward.
Researchers believe the timing of this event coincided with the dating of volcanic events analyzed by ice cores, and next they went to find out exactly where the eruption event was.
A forgotten major volcanic eruption
In 1783, the Mount Asama volcano in Japan erupted, killing more than 1,400 people. That event is still fresh in people’s minds. However, most people have forgotten that this volcano also had a continuous eruption for several months in 1108. The study says that it was probably that event that was the cause of the “lunar eclipse” in 1110.
The study found that a Japanese official described the scene as follows: “The crater erupted in flames, and the governor’s garden was covered with a thick layer of ashes, as were the farmlands and rice fields everywhere, which could not be planted. This country has never seen such a sight, it is strange and rare.”
In addition to eyewitness accounts, the researchers found evidence from the trees’ annual rings. They saw that the annual rings were particularly narrow in 1109, which means that year was particularly cold. In the northern hemisphere, the average temperature that year was about 1 degree Celsius lower.
Other historical records, which also mention particularities in climate and society during the period 1109-1111, describe what is likely to be the impact on society of the sustained eruption event in 1108.
For example, the researchers found numerous descriptions of severe weather, crop failures, famine, and “much evidence of hardship starting in 1109, which eventually led to famine in several regions of Western Europe.
The study concludes that, until now, all the evidence has been pieced together to reveal that a series of social disasters and strange celestial events between 1108 and 1110 turned out to be the major impact of a “forgotten” volcanic eruption event.
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