[meteorite-list] Astronomers Suggest Comet To Blame for 6th-Century 'Nuclear Winter'

From: Mark Ferguson <mafer_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:20 2004
Message-ID: <005301c3eb8d$8632d420$6df5d8ce_at_laptop>

Hi Sterling and list

It is interesting. The one thing you ommited about China though was that the
prince (or emperor) also said that a yellow dust was falling and could be
scooped up like snow (I think thats how it went). This suggested initially
that a event at Krakatoa dated to about that time occured. One interesting
thing to note is that there seems to be a correlation between impact events
and volcanic activity.
So, this could have been an event (the dark ages) fostered by an explosive
meteoritc entry or impact.

I like the fact that its effects can be seem in logs used for fortresses in
Ireland and elsewhere around the world which verify that there was a long
period of little growth in the trees.
Mark
---- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
To: "Bernhard "Rendelius" Rems" <rendelius_at_rpgdot.com>;
<meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 9:20 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers Suggest Comet To Blame for
6th-Century 'Nuclear Winter'


> Hi,
>
> The "comet" theory is not new nor original with these researchers.
There
> is a book published 4-5 years ago by Baille (title now forgotten by me)
that
> advance the same explanation for the same phenomenon.
> The "bad years" of 536-540 AD are a world-wide event. In fact, it
seems
> to have been at its very worst in SW China, where according to the
> chronicles, "the sun was not seen for three years"! Crops failed totally,
> and everything was covered with dust a foot deep.
> This description has given rise to the alternative theory of these
> events, which is that there was a volcanic eruption of tremendous size and
> world-wide effect. The culprit that is advanced is Krakatoa, which did
have
> a massive early episode sometime between 500 BC and 1000 AD, one 10 times
> bigger than the 1883 episode.
> However strata from this earlier event are hard to find and none that
> have been found have been datable with any precision, so it remains only a
> possibility, but not a proven one.
> The greatest volcanic event of the last 500 years was "Tambora on the
> island of Sumbawa in Indonesia in 1815, a 13,000-foot volcano that belched
> f1ame and ash from April 7 to 12, 1815; and rained stone fragments on
> surrounding villages. It has been estimated that Tambora's titanic
explosion
> blew from 37 to 100 cubic miles of dust, ashes, and cinders into the
> atmosphere, generating a globe-girdling veil of volcanic dust."
> This produced "The Year Without A Summer" world-wide in 1816. For
> fascinating details, see: <http://wchs.csc.noaa.gov/1816.htm>. Of course,
> the effects described in this fascinating piece of history could just as
> easily have been produced by a "insignificant" little 150-200 meter comet.
> At the time (1816), the cause was complete mystery (except to Benj.
> Franklin, who hypothesized the cause to be volcanic dust). Tambora was not
> identified as the culprit for almost a century (1913).
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>
> Bernhard \"Rendelius\" Rems wrote:
>
> > I mean, do they offer some PROOF for their theory? A "plume" is nothing
> > that would have gone unobserved by the eye (left alone a comet exploding
> > in the sky) - and as much as I know, the "mini ice age" at that time
> > wasn't a global occurence, but rather a european one - at least to my
> > knowledge. There has been a second "mini ice age" around 1500 in Europe,
> > and this is either attributed to the Maraunder solar minimum or the
> > change of the gulf stream.
> >
> > Bernhard
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com
> > [mailto:meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Ron
> > Baalke
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 5:39 PM
> > To: Meteorite Mailing List
> > Subject: [meteorite-list] Astronomers Suggest Comet To Blame for
> > 6th-Century 'Nuclear Winter'
> >
> > Contact: Dr Derek Ward-Thompson derek.ward-thompson_at_astro.cf.ac.uk
> > 029-2087-5314
> > Cardiff University
> > February 3, 2004
> >
> > Astronomers unravel a mystery of the Dark Ages
> >
> > Undergraduates' work blames comet for 6th-century "nuclear winter"
> >
> > Scientists at Cardiff University, UK, believe they have discovered the
> > cause of crop failures and summer frosts some 1,500 years ago - a comet
> > colliding with Earth.
> >
> > The team has been studying evidence from tree rings, which suggests that
> > the Earth underwent a series of very cold summers around 536-540 AD,
> > indicating an effect rather like a nuclear winter.
> >
> > The scientists in the School of Physics and Astronomy believe this was
> > caused by a comet hitting the earth and exploding in the upper
> > atmosphere. The debris from this giant explosion was such that it
> > enveloped the earth in soot and ash, blocking out the sunlight and
> > causing the very cold weather.
> >
> > This effect is known as a plume and is similar to that which was seen
> > when comet Shoemaker-Levy-9 hit Jupiter in 1995.
> >
> > Historical references from this period - known as the Dark Ages - are
> > sparse, but what records there are, tell of crop failures and summer
> > frosts.
> >
> > The work was carried out by two Cardiff undergraduate students, Emma
> > Rigby and Mel Symonds, as part of their student project work under the
> > supervision of Dr Derek Ward-Thompson.
> >
> > Their findings are reported in the February issue of Astronomy and
> > Geophysics, the in-house magazine of the Royal Astronomical Society.
> >
> > The surprising result of the new work is just how small a comet is
> > needed to cause such dramatic effects. The scientists calculate that a
> > comet not much more than half a kilometre across could cause a global
> > nuclear winter effect. This is significantly smaller than was previously
> > thought.
> >
> > Dr. Ward-Thompson said: "One of the exciting aspects of this work is
> > that we have re-classified the size of comet that represents a global
> > threat. This work shows that even a comet of only half a kilometre in
> > size could have global consequences. Previously nothing less than a
> > kilometre across was counted as a global threat. If such an event
> > happened again today, then once again a large fraction of the earth's
> > population could face starvation."
> >
> > The comet impact caused crop failures and wide-spread starvation among
> > the sixth century population. The timing coincides with the Justinian
> > Plague, widely believed to be the first appearance of the Black Death in
> > Europe. It is possible that the plague was so rampant and took hold so
> > quickly because the population was already weakened by starvation.
> >
> > ###
>
>
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Received on Wed 04 Feb 2004 09:12:33 PM PST