The Eldgja eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F86652079%3A_____%2F18%3A00496041" target="_blank" >RIV/86652079:_____/18:00496041 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216224:14310/18:00113401

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2171-9" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2171-9</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2171-9" target="_blank" >10.1007/s10584-018-2171-9</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Eldgja eruption: timing, long-range impacts and influence on the Christianisation of Iceland

Original language description

The Eldgja lava flood is considered Iceland's largest volcanic eruption of the Common Era. While it is well established that it occurred after the Settlement of Iceland (circa 874 CE), the date of this great event has remained uncertain. This has hampered investigation of the eruption's impacts, if any, on climate and society. Here, we use high-temporal resolution glaciochemical records from Greenland to show that the eruption began in spring 939 CE and continued, at least episodically, until at least autumn 940 CE. Contemporary chronicles identify the spread of a remarkable haze in 939 CE, and tree ring-based reconstructions reveal pronounced northern hemisphere summer cooling in 940 CE, consistent with the eruption's high yield of sulphur to the atmosphere. Consecutive severe winters and privations may also be associated with climatic effects of the volcanic aerosol veil. Iceland's formal conversion to Christianity dates to 999/1000 CE, within two generations or so of the Eldgja eruption. The end of the pagan pantheon is foretold in Iceland's renowned medieval poem, VC << luspa ('the prophecy of the seeress'). Several lines of the poem describe dramatic eruptive activity and attendant meteorological effects in an allusion to the fiery terminus of the pagan gods. We suggest that they draw on first-hand experiences of the Eldgja eruption and that this retrospection of harrowing volcanic events in the poem was intentional, with the purpose of stimulating Iceland's Christianisation over the latter half of the tenth century.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10509 - Meteorology and atmospheric sciences

Project

<a href="/en/project/LO1415" target="_blank" >LO1415: CzechGlobe 2020 – Development of the Centre of Global Climate Change Impacts Studies</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Climatic Change

ISSN

0165-0009

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

147

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3-4

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

369-381

UT code for WoS article

000428427200001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85044019279