The Volcanic Apocalypse; The Decade of Hell

The year was 536 CE, and a decade of absolute volcanic hell had just begun. As the sky darkened to make it look like twilight at noon, temperatures dropped, crops failed, and diseases spread, marking the onset of a volcanic winter. Yet, the worst had not even begun as in 540 CE an even larger eruption occurred, followed by a third major eruption in 547 CE. However, the source of these eruptions which were catastrophic to various societies around the globe has long mystified scientists of varying fields. Today's video will attempt to identify several possible volcano candidates which caused what is referred to as the worst decade to be alive in human history. Thumbnail Photo Credit: U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Public Domain, https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/ima... If you would like to support this channel, consider supporting me on Patreon: (Patreon:   / geologyhub  ) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) &/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video &/or thumbnail image): Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdom... CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Sources/Citations: [1] van Dijk, E., Jungclaus, J., Lorenz, S., Timmreck, C., and Krüger, K.: Was there a volcanic-induced long-lasting cooling over the Northern Hemisphere in the mid-6th–7th century?, Clim. Past, 18, 1601–1623, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1601-2022, 2022., CC BY 4.0. [2] Brian R. Jicha, Brad S. Singer; Volcanic history and magmatic evolution of Seguam Island, Aleutian Island arc, Alaska. GSA Bulletin 2006;; 118 (7-8): 805–822. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/B25861.1 [3] Sigl, M., Winstrup, M., McConnell, J. et al. Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years. Nature 523, 543–549 (2015). This paper was used to cite the hypothesis for the multisource 535-536 eruptions from a volcano in Canada, California, and the Aleutians. [4] U.S. Geological Survey [5] Alaska Volcano Observatory [6] Withoos, Yannick (2022). A study of the stratigraphy, lithofacies and geochemistry of Taal Caldera Volcano, Philippines, and its implications for the understanding of flooded caldera volcanoes. University of Leicester. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.25392/leicester.da... [7] NOAA, https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/mloapt.html [8] Tebbens, Leo. “Tephrochronological Evidence for the Late Holocene Eruption History of El Chichón Volcano, Mexico.” Geofísica Internacional, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2009. [9] Kees Nooren, Wim Z. Hoek, Hans van der Plicht, Michael Sigl, Manfred J. van Bergen, Didier Galop, Nuria Torrescano-Valle, Gerald Islebe, Annika Huizinga, Tim Winkels, Hans Middelkoop; Explosive eruption of El Chichón volcano (Mexico) disrupted 6th century Maya civilization and contributed to global cooling. Geology 2017;; 45 (2): 175–178. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G38739.1 [10] University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute [11] Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys [12] Dallas Abbott, John Barron, Andrzej Witkowski, "Enduring Mysteries What Really Happened in 536 A.D.? Why Did Trees Grow Slowly for 20 Years Afterward?" [13] VEIs, dates/years, composition, tephra layer name, DRE estimates, and bulk tephra volume estimates for volcanic eruptions shown in this video which were assigned a VEI 4 or larger (with the exception of Mount Tambora's tephra volume & hypothesized eruption sizes) are sourced from the LaMEVE database (British Geological Survey © UKRI), https://www2.bgs.ac.uk/vogripa/view/c..., Used with Permission 0:00 Decade of Hell 1:22 Link to a Volcano in Canada 3:15 Volcanic Winter 4:40 Link to Plague of Justinian 5:43 Suspected Eruption Sizes 7:20 Debunked Former Candidates 8:07 536 CE Mystery Eruption 8:49 California Volcano 10:29 Canada Eruption 12:07 Aleutian Volcano 13:40 540 CE Mystery Eruption 15:05 547 CE Mystery Eruption 16:04 Conclusion