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Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact

Helen M. Innes Orcid Logo, William Hutchison Orcid Logo, Michael Sigl, Laura Crick Orcid Logo, Peter Abbott Orcid Logo, Matthias Bigler Orcid Logo, Nathan J. Chellman, Siwan Davies Orcid Logo, Steffen Kutterolf Orcid Logo, Joseph R. McConnell Orcid Logo, Mirko Severi Orcid Logo, R. Stephen J. Sparks Orcid Logo, Anders Svensson Orcid Logo, Eric W. Wolff Orcid Logo, James W. B. Rae Orcid Logo, Andrea Burke Orcid Logo

Communications Earth & Environment, Volume: 6, Issue: 1

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

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DOI (Published version): 10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6

Abstract

Volcanic supereruptions are considered among the few drivers of global and existential catastrophes, with recent hypotheses suggesting massive volcanic stratospheric sulfate injection could instigate major shifts in global climate. The absence of supereruptions during recent history as well as large...

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Published in: Communications Earth & Environment
ISSN: 2662-4435
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68969
first_indexed 2025-02-26T14:11:17Z
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The absence of supereruptions during recent history as well as large uncertainties on eruption ages limits understanding of the climatic risk they impose. Polar ice cores have well-resolved continuous age models, record past temperature, and contain volcanic sulfate and cryptotephra deposits which can be geochemically fingerprinted to determine eruption timing and improve stratospheric sulfur loading estimates. Here, we provide an age of 79,500 years for the Atitl&#xE1;n Los Chocoyos supereruption, one of the largest Quaternary eruptions, by identifying tephra shards in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica. This ice core age is supported by a revised marine sediment core stratigraphy age for the Los Chocoyos ash layer. 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spelling 2025-03-11T15:19:39.9982905 v2 68969 2025-02-26 Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact 26d7380e67d377820751431c8078bb83 0000-0002-6347-9499 Peter Abbott Peter Abbott true false b628382c97124173dd283bf7b83f1eec 0000-0003-0999-7233 Siwan Davies Siwan Davies true false 2025-02-26 BGPS Volcanic supereruptions are considered among the few drivers of global and existential catastrophes, with recent hypotheses suggesting massive volcanic stratospheric sulfate injection could instigate major shifts in global climate. The absence of supereruptions during recent history as well as large uncertainties on eruption ages limits understanding of the climatic risk they impose. Polar ice cores have well-resolved continuous age models, record past temperature, and contain volcanic sulfate and cryptotephra deposits which can be geochemically fingerprinted to determine eruption timing and improve stratospheric sulfur loading estimates. Here, we provide an age of 79,500 years for the Atitlán Los Chocoyos supereruption, one of the largest Quaternary eruptions, by identifying tephra shards in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica. This ice core age is supported by a revised marine sediment core stratigraphy age for the Los Chocoyos ash layer. Through comparison with well-dated ice-core temperature proxy records, our study suggests that despite being one of the largest sulfur emissions recorded in ice cores, the Los Chocoyos supereruption did not trigger a millennial-scale cold period. Journal Article Communications Earth &amp; Environment 6 1 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2662-4435 22 2 2025 2025-02-22 10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This work was funded by IAPETUS2 NERC Doctoral Training Program Studentship (HI), UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship MR/S-33505/1 (WH), ERC Horizon 2020 grant 820047 (MSi and PMA), Leverhulme Trust grant RPG-2015-246 and Fellowship EM-2018-050/4 (RSJS), Leverhulme Trust Prize PLP-2021-167 (AB). The EPMA facilities at the University of St Andrews are supported by the EPSRC Light Element Analysis Facility Grant EP/T019298/1 and the EPSRC Strategic Equipment Resource Grant EP/R023751/1. We thank the National Science Foundation-Ice Core Facility (NSF-2041950). M. Twickler and G. Hargreaves for providing access to GISP2 samples, ice-core sampling assistance, and curation; we thank the NGRIP and NEEM communities, J.P. Steffensen and I. Koldtoft for providing access to NGRIP and NEEM samples, and we thank I. Gabriel for ice-core sampling assistance. This research contributes to the NGRIP and NEEM ice-core projects, which are curated by Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth (PICE), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen (KU). These projects were supported by funding agencies in Denmark (SNF, FI), Canada (NRCan/GSC), China (CAS), Belgium (FNRS-CFB, FWO), France (IPEV, IFRTP, INSU/CNRS, CEA and ANR), Germany (AWI), Iceland (RannIs), Japan (MEXT, NIPR), South Korea (KOPRI), Sweden (SPRS, VR), Switzerland (SNF), The Netherlands (NWO/ALW), United Kingdom (NERC) and the United States of America (NSF, Office of Polar Programs). 2025-03-11T15:19:39.9982905 2025-02-26T14:08:17.2309455 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Helen M. Innes 0000-0002-4003-3910 1 William Hutchison 0000-0002-5456-3277 2 Michael Sigl 3 Laura Crick 0000-0003-1843-4678 4 Peter Abbott 0000-0002-6347-9499 5 Matthias Bigler 0000-0003-0184-4013 6 Nathan J. Chellman 7 Siwan Davies 0000-0003-0999-7233 8 Steffen Kutterolf 0000-0002-0645-3399 9 Joseph R. McConnell 0000-0001-9051-5240 10 Mirko Severi 0000-0003-1511-6762 11 R. Stephen J. Sparks 0000-0001-7173-2899 12 Anders Svensson 0000-0002-4364-6085 13 Eric W. Wolff 0000-0002-5914-8531 14 James W. B. Rae 0000-0003-3904-2526 15 Andrea Burke 0000-0002-3754-1498 16 68969__33784__fad675a3d9a74494ab011b2f00cb1522.pdf 68969.VoR.pdf 2025-03-11T15:17:23.8699842 Output 2021791 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. s This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact
spellingShingle Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact
Peter Abbott
Siwan Davies
title_short Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact
title_full Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact
title_fullStr Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact
title_full_unstemmed Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact
title_sort Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact
author_id_str_mv 26d7380e67d377820751431c8078bb83
b628382c97124173dd283bf7b83f1eec
author_id_fullname_str_mv 26d7380e67d377820751431c8078bb83_***_Peter Abbott
b628382c97124173dd283bf7b83f1eec_***_Siwan Davies
author Peter Abbott
Siwan Davies
author2 Helen M. Innes
William Hutchison
Michael Sigl
Laura Crick
Peter Abbott
Matthias Bigler
Nathan J. Chellman
Siwan Davies
Steffen Kutterolf
Joseph R. McConnell
Mirko Severi
R. Stephen J. Sparks
Anders Svensson
Eric W. Wolff
James W. B. Rae
Andrea Burke
format Journal article
container_title Communications Earth &amp; Environment
container_volume 6
container_issue 1
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2662-4435
doi_str_mv 10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Volcanic supereruptions are considered among the few drivers of global and existential catastrophes, with recent hypotheses suggesting massive volcanic stratospheric sulfate injection could instigate major shifts in global climate. The absence of supereruptions during recent history as well as large uncertainties on eruption ages limits understanding of the climatic risk they impose. Polar ice cores have well-resolved continuous age models, record past temperature, and contain volcanic sulfate and cryptotephra deposits which can be geochemically fingerprinted to determine eruption timing and improve stratospheric sulfur loading estimates. Here, we provide an age of 79,500 years for the Atitlán Los Chocoyos supereruption, one of the largest Quaternary eruptions, by identifying tephra shards in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica. This ice core age is supported by a revised marine sediment core stratigraphy age for the Los Chocoyos ash layer. Through comparison with well-dated ice-core temperature proxy records, our study suggests that despite being one of the largest sulfur emissions recorded in ice cores, the Los Chocoyos supereruption did not trigger a millennial-scale cold period.
published_date 2025-02-22T05:22:43Z
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score 11.089718

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