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Hekla 3 eruption

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Hekla is located in Iceland
Hekla
Hekla
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Hekla on the map of Island

The Hekla 3 eruption (H-3) circa 1000 BC is considered the most severe eruption of Hekla during the Holocene.[1] It threw about 7.3 km3 of volcanic rock into the atmosphere,[2] placing its Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) at 5. This would have cooled temperatures in the northern parts of the globe for a few years afterwards.

An eighteen-year span of climate worsening is recorded in Irish bog oaks, and H-3 was blamed for it.[3][4]

The eruption is detectable through Greenland ice-cores, the bristlecone pine sequence, and the Irish oak sequence of extremely narrow growth rings. Baker's team dated it to 1021 + 130/-100 BC. [5]

Baker preferred a "high chronology" (earlier) interpretation of these results. In Sutherland, northwest Scotland, a spurt of four years of doubled annual luminescent growth banding of calcite in a stalagmite datable to 1135 ± 130 BC.[6] A rival, "low-chronology" interpretation of the eruption comes from Dugmore, 2879 BP = 929 BC ± 34.[7]

In 1999 Dugmore suggested a non-volcanic explanation for the Scottish results.[8] In 2000 skepticism concerning conclusions about connecting Hekla 3 and Hekla 4 eruptions with paleoenvironmental events and archaeologically attested abandonment of settlement sites in northern Scotland was expressed by John P. Grattan and David D. Gilbertson.[9]

Some Egyptologists in 1999 firmly dated the eruption to 1159 BC and blamed it for famines under Ramesses III during the wider Bronze Age collapse.[10] Dugmore dismissed this and maintains his dating to this day.[11] Other scholars have held off on this dispute, preferring the neutral and vague "3000 BP".[12]

References

  1. ^ Eiríksson, Jón (2000). "Chronology of late Holocene climatic events in the northern North Atlantic based on AMS 14C dates and tephra markers from the volcano Hekla, Iceland". Journal of Quaternary Science. 15 (6): 573–580. doi:10.1002/1099-1417(200009)15:6<573::AID-JQS554>3.0.CO;2-A. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Hekla". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.
  3. ^ Baillie, Mike (1989). "Hekla 3: how big was it?". Endeavour. New series. 13: 78–81. doi:10.1016/0160-9327(89)90006-9. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ Baillie, Mike (1989). "Do Irish bog oaks date the Shang dynasty?". Current archaeology. 10: 310–313. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Baker, Andy (1995). "The Hekla 3 volcanic eruption recorded in a Scottish speleothem?". The Holocene. 5 (3): 336–342. doi:10.1177/095968369500500309. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Dated by uranium-thorium thermal ionization mass spectrometry to 1135 ± 130 BC in Baker, Andy (1995). "The Hekla 3 volcanic eruption recorded in a Scottish speleothem?". The Holocene. 5 (3): 336–342. doi:10.1177/095968369500500309. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Dugmore, AJ (1995). "Radiocarbon Dating Tephra Layers in Britain and Iceland". Radiocarbon. 37 (2). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); replacement character in |coauthors= at position 60 (help)
  8. ^ Andrew Dugmore, Geriant Coles, Paul Buckland, "A Scottish speleothem record of the H-3 eruption or human impact? A comment on Baker, Smart, Barnes, Edwards and Farrant" The Holocene 9.4 501-503 (1999).
  9. ^ Grattan (2000). "Prehistoric 'settlement crisis', environmental changes in the British Isles, and volcanic eruptions in Iceland: An explorarion of plausible linkages". In McCoy, Floyd W.; Heiken, Grant (eds.) (ed.). Volcanic Hazards and Disasters in Human Antiquity. GSA Special Paper. Vol. 345. Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America. ISBN 0813723450. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  10. ^ Yurco, Frank J. (1999). "End of the Late Bronze Age and Other Crisis Periods: A Volcanic Cause". In Teeter, Emily; Larson, John (eds.) (ed.). Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization. Vol. 58. Chicago, IL: Oriental Institute of the Univ. of Chicago. pp. 456–458. ISBN 1885923090. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  11. ^ Late Holocene solifluction history reconstructed using tephrochronology, Martin P. Kirkbride & Andrew J. Dugmore, Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2005; v. 242; p. 145-155.
  12. ^ TOWARDS A HOLOCENE TEPHROCHRONOLOGY FOR SWEDEN, Stefan WastegÅrd, XVI INQUA Congress, Paper No. 41-13, Saturday, July 26, 2003.

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