Irish tree rings, Santorini and volcanic dust veils

Abstract

There has recently been renewed interest in the dating of the violent eruption of the Aegean island of Santorini in the second millennium BC, both by its possible effects on tree-ring growth in the United States1 (suggesting a date of 1628–1626 BC), and by acidity peaks in ice cores from South Greenland2 (suggesting 1645 BC). We now show that oak trees growing on bogs in Northern Ireland produce significant concentrations of extremely narrow rings within a few periods less than 20 years long and that these periods correspond to the dates suggested by other methods for major volcanic eruptions. In particular, one of them, corresponding to a short period beginning in 1628 BC, was probably caused by Santorini. This date is qualitatively better than those derived from carbon-14 or ice cores, because it is based on an absolute tree-ring chronology.