The nature of the strange phenomenon that happened almost a thousand years ago was able to determine.
Almost a millennium ago, a giant cloud of sulfur-rich particles entered the Earth's atmosphere. This darkened the sky for several months or even years before the particles settled on the ground.
Scientists figured this out by drilling and analyzing ice cores. The samples were found to contain aerosols of sulfur formed during volcanic eruptions and reached the stratosphere. Ice can hold evidence of volcanic activity for an incredibly long time. However, it is not so easy to determine the exact date of the event, traces of which were found in the cores.
Previously, scientists assumed that the sulfur deposits appeared as a result of a large eruption in 1104 of the Icelandic volcano Hekla, which in the Middle Ages was called the "Gateway to Hell". But these findings are contradicted by the results of a new study led by a team of scientists led by paleoclimatologist Sebastien Guillet of the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
According to researchers, Hekla could not be the culprit for atmospheric pollution, since the sediments in the cores date back to a later period - from late 1108 to early 1113. Scientists have looked to historical documents for old descriptions of unusual lunar eclipses that might correspond to changes in the stratosphere during major eruptions.
According to NASA records based on retro-astronomical calculations, seven total lunar eclipses could have been observed in Europe in the first 20 years of the last millennium, between 1100 and 1120. At the same time, one of the medieval testimonies speaks of an exceptionally dark moon, observed in 1110.
“On the fifth night of May, a brightly shining moon rose, and then its light gradually diminished, and as soon as night fell, it completely disappeared, no light, no ball - nothing was visible,” says the Peterborough Chronicle, one of the digitized English annals.
Since then, many astronomers have discussed this mysterious and unusually dark lunar eclipse. Centuries later, the English astronomer George Frederick Chambers (1841-1915) wrote of this: "Obviously this [eclipse] was an example of a black eclipse, where the Moon becomes completely invisible, rather than shining with the familiar copper hue."
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Despite the fact that this event is well known in the history of astronomy, researchers never assumed that it could be caused by the presence of volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere, although this is the most likely cause, new research suggests.
The most likely culprit for the "disappearance of the moon" scientists call the Asama volcano in Japan, which erupted for several months in 1108. A diary entry left by a Japanese statesman describes the event as follows: “There was a fire at the top of the volcano, a thick layer of ash in the governor's garden, all the rice fields were unsuitable for cultivation. We have never seen anything like it in the country. This is a very strange and rare thing."
Fragment of an Easter table from the National Library of France. Several brief historical notes were added in the margins of the Easter table, which contained information mainly about the royal reigns, as well as about the succession of abbots, bishops and popes. However, a record of 1109 A. D. notes the great famine in France lasting three years.
The authors of the work also examined the data on tree rings, which showed that 1109 was extremely cold (about 1 degree on average in the northern hemisphere). Researchers have found other evidence of cold snaps, crop failures and famine during this period, affecting Europe as well.
Scientists note that this combined evidence shows how a forgotten series of volcanic eruptions in 1108-1110 caused dire consequences for humanity. Now researchers are discovering them from a new perspective.
Mikhail Sysoev