Abstract
In historic times, two catastrophic fissure eruptions originated in the Eastern Volcanic Zone of Iceland, known as Eldgjá eruption (934–940 CE) and Laki eruption (1783–1784 CE). Eldgjá produced 19.7 km3 of lava flows and 1.3 km3 of tephra; Laki emitted 14.7 km3 of lavas and 0.4 km3 of tephra. They released 232 and 122 megatons of SO2 into the atmosphere, respectively. Abundant historic descriptions of the effects of the Laki eruption indicate that the SO2 release produced a sulphuric aerosol that spread across the northern hemisphere with devastating impacts on the population and the environment, especially in Europe. In this study, we present two new written sources that enable the effects of the Eldgjá and Laki eruptions to be fixed to an exact date and place of occurrence in North Africa. These are a medieval North African chronicle known as Rawḍ al-Qirṭās, written in 1326 CE and describing events in Morocco, and a chronicle of events in the island of Djerba (southern Tunisia), written by Muhammad b. Yusef al-Musabi in 1792–1793 CE. These previously unrecognized sources describe in detail the fading of sunlight coupled with the persistent presence of a thick fog made up of fine particles carried over from long distances. The chronicles report events in Morocco in the time period October 938–October 939 CE, and in Tunisia in the year 1783 CE. These data can be interpreted as the first detailed evidence of the consequences of the Eldgjá and Laki eruptions in North Africa. They also can be helpful in dating and determining the area of influence of the eruptions; this may be useful for several applications, such as the numerical simulation of these events, or hazard planning in case of possible future similar eruptions from the same Icelandic area.
Highlights
Very large volcanic eruptions can have important effects on human society and the natural environment
The phenomenon is recorded in a medieval North African chronicle known as Rawḍ al-Qirṭās (“The Gardens of Paper”), which was written in 1326 CE and is one of the most important sources on the history of Morocco in the first centuries of the Islamic conquest
We discovered an indigenous report from North Africa that comes from a short chronicle of events on the island of Djerba, written by Muḥammad b
Summary
Very large volcanic eruptions can have important effects on human society and the natural environment. This influence can occur at a scale that potentially ranges from the global (Rampino and Self 1993) to the very local (Baxter et al 1999), and through different mechanisms that include climate modification, acid rain/aerosol impact, proximal and distal production of pyroclastic deposits, gas emission and tsunami. 1 “Riccardo Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan, Italy. Volcanic eruptions may modify the climate conditions by introducing sulphur gases into the stratosphere, which oxidize into an aerosol layer. Volcanic gases have direct effects on the environment and the human society, as the gases lead
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