English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

. One of the largest climate forcing eruptions of the nineteenthcentury was, until recently, believed to have taken place at the Babuyan Clarovolcano, in the Philippines, in 1831. However, a recent investigation foundno reliable evidence of such an eruption, suggesting that the 1831 eruptionmust have taken place elsewhere. We here present our newly compiled dataset of reportedobservations of a blue, purple and green sun in August 1831, which we use toreconstruct the transport of a stratospheric aerosol plume from thateruption. The source of the aerosol plume is identified as the eruption ofFerdinandea, which took place about 50 km off the south-west coast of Sicily(37.1∘ N, 12.7∘ E), in July and August 1831. The modestmagnitude of this eruption, assigned a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 3, has commonly caused it to be discounted or overlooked when identifying the likely source of the stratospheric sulfate aerosol in 1831. It isproposed, however, that convective instability in the tropospherecontributed to aerosol reaching the stratosphere and that the aerosol loadwas enhanced by addition of a sedimentary sulfur component to the volcanicplume. Thus, one of the largest climate forcing volcanic eruptions of thenineteenth century would effectively have been hiding in plain sight,arguably “lowering the bar” for the types of eruptions capable of having asubstantial climate forcing impact. Prior estimates of the mass ofstratospheric sulfate aerosol responsible for the 1831 Greenland ice coresulfate deposition peaks which have assumed a source eruption at alow-latitude site will, therefore, have been overstated. The example presentedin this paper serves as a useful reminder that VEI values were not intendedto be reliably correlated with eruption sulfur yields unless supplementedwith compositional analyses. It also underlines that eye-witness accounts ofhistorical geophysical events should not be neglected as a source ofvaluable scientific data.

The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century?