The Campanian Ignimbrite Eruption: New Data on Volcanic Ash Dispersal and Its Potential Impact on Human Evolution

Kathryn E Fitzsimmons,Daniel Veres,Radu Iovita,Ulrich Hambach,John P Hart

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065839

Abstract

The Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) volcanic eruption was the most explosive in Europe in the last 200,000 years. The event coincided with the onset of an extremely cold climatic phase known as Heinrich Event 4 (HE4) approximately 40,000 years ago. Their combined effect may have exacerbated the severity of the climate through positive feedbacks across Europe and possibly globally. The CI event is of particular interest not only to investigate the role of volcanism on climate forcing and palaeoenvironments, but also because its timing coincides with the arrival into Europe of anatomically modern humans, the demise of Neanderthals, and an associated major shift in lithic technology. At this stage, however, the degree of interaction between these factors is poorly known, based on fragmentary and widely dispersed data points. In this study we provide important new data from Eastern Europe which indicate that the magnitude of the CI eruption and impact of associated distal ash (tephra) deposits may have been substantially greater than existing models suggest. The scale of the eruption is modelled by tephra distribution and thickness, supported by local data points. CI ashfall extends as far as the Russian Plain, Eastern Mediterranean and northern Africa. However, modelling input is limited by very few data points in Eastern Europe. Here we investigate an unexpectedly thick CI tephra deposit in the southeast Romanian loess steppe, positively identified using geochemical and geochronological analyses. We establish the tephra as a widespread primary deposit, which blanketed the topography both thickly and rapidly, with potentially catastrophic impacts on local ecosystems. Our discovery not only highlights the need to reassess models for the magnitude of the eruption and its role in climatic transition, but also suggests that it may have substantially influenced hominin population and subsistence dynamics in a region strategic for human migration into Europe.

Highlights

The Phlegrean Fields super-eruption and caldera collapse that produced the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI)/Y-5 tephra, which took place 39.2860.11 ka [1], was one of the most explosive eruptions affecting Europe in the late Pleistocene [2], in terms of both eruption magnitude and volume of volcanic ejecta
In this paper we investigate an especially thick deposit of CI tephra from the Urluia Quarry site, a substantial exposure of loess and limestone basement rocks located on the Dobrogea loess plateau (Figure 2a)
The climatic impacts of the CI super-eruption, its interaction with the Heinrich Event 4 (HE4) episode, and implications for Palaeolithic communities living in this region especially, are likely to have been more extreme, and should be carefully reassessed

Summary

Introduction

The Phlegrean Fields super-eruption and caldera collapse that produced the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI)/Y-5 tephra, which took place 39.2860.11 ka [1], was one of the most explosive eruptions affecting Europe in the late Pleistocene [2], in terms of both eruption magnitude and volume of volcanic ejecta. The timing of this eruption coincides with the onset of the cold, dry climatic phase Heinrich Event 4 (HE4) [13,14]. The timing of the eruption, and of the extreme environmental conditions during HE4, coincides with significant changes in the archaeological record in Europe; the arrival of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) [16,17,18], a substantial shift in hominin lithic technology [18,19,20], and the disappearance of Neanderthals from the continent [21,22]. The role of the CI super-eruption in the interaction between sudden climatic change, the demise of the Neanderthals, and their replacement by AMHs, remains a matter of hypothesis [10,15,23]

Methods

Results

Conclusion