"The Year Without Summer" - What Triggered the Mini Ice Age of 1810?

Global warming is our current focus, but from 1810 to 1819, people worried because the planet was far colder than usual, with the planet cooling almost a full degree Fahrenheit. 1816 according to climate historians was known as "the year without a summer."

The chill of 1816 has long been blamed on an Indonesian volcano called Tambora, which erupted the year before. But why the years before Tambora's eruption were also colder than usual was a mystery.

Newly uncovered evidence in the ice of Antarctica and Greenland suggests that another volcanic eruption may have contributed to the worldwide dip in temperatures.

Jihong Cole-Dai, a chemistry professor at South Dakota State University, led the expeditions to Antarctica and Greenland, told NPR's Guy Raz in an interview that volcanoes dump large quantities of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, which acts "like a giant window shade, reflecting sunlight and lowering temperatures on the ground for years afterward."

But Cole-Dai empasizes that one eruption isn't enough to freeze an entire decade. He knew something else had to have been going on which turned out to be layers of sulfur buried in ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica that showed another volcano had erupted some time in 1809, triggering  a mini ice age.

Cole-Dai said his research team isn't sure exactly where the mystery volcano is, but they suspect that it was somewhere near the equator and that it had to be large enough to blanket the planet in ash.

Casey Kazan

Source: http://www.npr.org/

Comments

[Uncle B]

Amazing! How frail the climate that feeds us all! Nuclear bombs but a spark in the face of Mother Nature! Fear the lowly jellyfish, about to cause starvation in Japan then what? China also to fall victim! Found off California, and now in the deeps of the North Atlantic! Spreading like a great cancer in the Oceans of the world! Throw in a volcano or two and humankind will lose its cocky attitude won't they! H1, N1 virus a harbinger of what is to come, and population reduction in Mother Natures very efficient ways likely to affect the Great Hulking American Neanderthal, spawn of force feeding by corporatism for the rapid rape of North America's easiest riches - he no longer has a task to perform that will pay for his high caloric diet, huge consumption for survival, and has become in his own country an unsustainable entity to languish in "Unemployable" lines and soup kitchens with no hope of economic recovery - He has been replaced by more efficient rice and veggies Asians! The world in flux, always, and right now it looks dark for the Yankee Doodle's of the age, brighter for Asians. Volcanoes are not the only forces Mother Nature uses! Pray the "Gulf Stream" is not effected by the Smoke stacks of America, Asia! What a dynamic world we live in today!

[Art]

Wow, "Uncle B", what an avalanche of pathological drivel.

... population reduction in Mother Natures very efficient ways likely to affect the Great Hulking American Neanderthal ...

The wishing of mass death on others - always the sign of a stable mind.

Volcanoes are not the only forces Mother Nature uses!

Yes, the forces of "Mother Nature" are mysterious indeed - especially to scientifically illiterate Eurotrash.

Pray the "Gulf Stream" is not effected by the Smoke stacks of America ...

Pray to whom, Gaia?

What a dynamic world we live in today!

I don't doubt for a moment that your world is "dynamic", given your delusions. Time to get back on your meds.

[JB]

Good grief, "Uncle B"! Please return the the underside of whatever rock you crawled out from. "Pathological drivel" indeed.

Has there ever been any consideration that triggering a major volcanic explosion could be a plausible last-ditch solution to global warming? Too Bondian for reality, I'm sure, but interesting to consider for Hollywood fodder.

[woody]

Is it possible that some of global warming is due to the lack of major volcanic eruptions in recent times?

[BIGBLACKMAN]

Uncle B, you should go see a psychologist and get yourself diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar Disorder. Then, get some medication and kil* yourself.

Regards.

[ShadowDs]

@ Woody
Possible yes, but corelations do not necessarily mean cause.

Volcanoes also emit green house gasses which also can lead to increases in global temperatures... so call them nature's wild card.

[keiarix]

Uncle B......O blood type...American Neanderthal....shiz bbq the asians..yum