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The 1831 CE mystery eruption identified as Zavaritskii caldera, Simushir Island (Kurils)

William Hutchison Orcid Logo, Patrick Sugden, Andrea Burke Orcid Logo, Peter Abbott Orcid Logo, Vera V. Ponomareva Orcid Logo, Oleg Dirksen Orcid Logo, Maxim V. Portnyagin Orcid Logo, Breanyn MacInnes, Joanne Bourgeois, Ben Fitzhugh, Magali Verkerk Orcid Logo, Thomas J. Aubry, Samantha L. Engwell, Anders Svensson, Nathan J. Chellman Orcid Logo, Joseph R. McConnell Orcid Logo, Siwan Davies Orcid Logo, Michael Sigl, Gill Plunkett Orcid Logo

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume: 122, Issue: 1

Swansea University Authors: Peter Abbott Orcid Logo, Siwan Davies Orcid Logo

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Abstract

Polar ice cores and historical records evidence a large-magnitude volcanic eruption in 1831 CE. This event was estimated to have injected ~13 Tg of sulfur (S) into the stratosphere which produced various atmospheric optical phenomena and led to Northern Hemisphere climate cooling of ~1 °C. The sourc...

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Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
ISSN: 0027-8424 1091-6490
Published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2025
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68574
Abstract: Polar ice cores and historical records evidence a large-magnitude volcanic eruption in 1831 CE. This event was estimated to have injected ~13 Tg of sulfur (S) into the stratosphere which produced various atmospheric optical phenomena and led to Northern Hemisphere climate cooling of ~1 °C. The source of this volcanic event remains enigmatic, though one hypothesis has linked it to a modest phreatomagmatic eruption of Ferdinandea in the Strait of Sicily, which may have emitted additional S through magma–crust interactions with evaporite rocks. Here, we undertake a high-resolution multiproxy geochemical analysis of ice-core archives spanning the 1831 CE volcanic event. S isotopes confirm a major Northern Hemisphere stratospheric eruption but, importantly, rule out significant contributions from external evaporite S. In multiple ice cores, we identify cryptotephra layers of low K andesite-dacite glass shards occurring in summer 1831 CE and immediately prior to the stratospheric S fallout. This tephra matches the chemistry of the youngest Plinian eruption of Zavaritskii, a remote nested caldera on Simushir Island (Kurils). Radiocarbon ages confirm a recent (<300 y) eruption of Zavaritskii, and erupted volume estimates are consistent with a magnitude 5 to 6 event. The reconstructed radiative forcing of Zavaritskii (−2 ± 1 W m−2) is comparable to the 1991 CE Pinatubo eruption and can readily account for the climate cooling in 1831–1833 CE. These data provide compelling evidence that Zavaritskii was the source of the 1831 CE mystery eruption and solve a confounding case of multiple closely spaced observed and unobserved volcanic eruptions.
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Funders: W. Hutchison is funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S033505/1). A. Burke is funded by a Philip Leverhulme prize in Earth Sciences (PLP-2021-167) from the Leverhulme Trust. P. Abbott and M. Sigl received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 820047). V. Ponomareva and O. Dirksen acknowledge support from the Russian Science Foundation grant #22-17-10074 which funded the analysis of proximal Zavaritskii materials and their work on the manuscript. B. MacInnes, J. Bourgeois, and B. Fitzhugh acknowledge funding from the Kuril Biocomplexity Project (U.S. NSF grant ACR-0508109). M. Verkerk is funded by a doctoral scholarship from the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy of the University of Exeter. S.L. Engwell was supported by the NC-ODA grant NE/R000069/1: Geoscience for Sustainable Futures and publishes with permission of the CEO, British Geological Survey. S. Davies acknowledges support from a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Fellowship. Collection, initial chemical analyses, and chronology development of the NEEM-2011-S1, Tunu2013, Summit2010, D4, and WDC06A ice cores were funded by grants to J. McConnell from the U.S. NSF. The St Andrews EPMA was supported by the EPSRC Light Element Analysis Facility Grant EP/T019298/1 and the EPSRC Strategic Equipment Resource Grant EP/R023751/1.
Issue: 1