Study Links 1345 Eruption to Black Death Arrival

A new study suggests that a massive volcanic eruption around 1345 triggered a chain of environmental and economic events that accelerated the arrival of the Black Death in Europe, the devastating bubonic plague pandemic that killed an estimated 25 to 50 million people between 1347 and 1353.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe analyzed tree-ring data, ice cores and historical records to reconstruct the climate conditions leading up to the outbreak. They propose that the eruption, likely in a tropical location, released sulfur-rich ash and gases into the atmosphere, creating a haze that cooled temperatures and increased cloudiness across the Northern Hemisphere. This resulted in unusually cold and wet summers in southern Europe from 1345 to 1347, as evidenced by rare "blue rings" in tree samples from the Spanish Pyrenees and reports of diminished sunlight and darkened lunar eclipses from observers in Japan, China, Germany, France and Italy.

The climatic disruptions caused widespread crop failures and famine in the Mediterranean region, particularly in northwestern Italy, where heavy rains in late 1345...