The Grindelwald Fluctuation is a period (in a wider cooling phenomenon) when glaciers in Grindelwald, Switzerland, expanded significantly. Temperatures were 1-2 degrees Celsius lower than twentieth-century averages during this period, which is thought to have lasted from the 1560s to the 1630s. [1]
The Grindelwald Fluctuation occurred during the Little Ice Age, a period of cooling that occurred from the 13th to the mid 19th century; characterised by the expansion of glaciers in many parts of the world, including the Alps in Europe. It produced some of the lowest temperatures known to this holocene. [2]
The expansion of the Swiss Grindelwald glaciers during this period was likely due to a combination of factors, including volcanic activity, changes in solar radiation, and the sudden decrease in population numbers.
The Grindelwald Fluctuation is believed to have been partially caused by a slew of volcanic eruptions. [3]
A succession of volcanic eruptions can create a cooling effect. When a volcano erupts it releases sulphur dioxide and other aerosols into the stratosphere, which can block some of the sun's radiation from reaching the Earth's surface. Depending on the size and frequency of these eruptions, the cooling effects can last anywhere from a few years to a few decades. [4]
In 1585, the Colima volcano in Mexico erupted. [5] 10 years later in 1595, Nevado del Ruiz erupted. [6] Then in 1600, five years later, the Huaynaputina volcano erupted in what is known as one of the most powerful explosions to occur in the last 2500 years. [7] These back to back major volcanic explosions can cause long-term cooling by activating “positive feedback” in different parts of the Earth's climate system.
However it is believed that the Grindelwald Fluctuation began some 15 years prior to the first volcanic eruption.
Solar radiation is a major driver of the Earth's climate. Changes in solar radiation can affect the temperature and precipitation patterns on Earth. During the Little Ice Age, the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface was lower than it is today due to an event known as the Maunder Minimum; the most recent Grand Solar Minimum. [8] This minimum lasted from 1645 to 1715 coinciding with the Grindelwald Fluctuation, therefore it is thought to have contributed to the expansion of glaciers, however it is not clear to what extent the changes in solar radiation affected the expansion of the Grindelwald glaciers. It is however possible that these changes in solar radiation were a contributing factor to the Grindelwald Fluctuation. [9]
This shift in solar activity can be proved by:
Overall, the evidence suggests that the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface was slightly lower during the Grindelwald Fluctuation, and this reduction in solar radiation is thought to have contributed to the expansion of the glaciers. [10]
Human activities such as deforestation and land use changes are known to negatively affect local climate patterns. William Ruddiman, a palaeoclimatologist, proposed the hypothesis that human activity has been affecting the Earth's climate for much longer than previously thought. [11] In particular, Ruddiman has argued that the early adoption of agriculture and land-use practices by human societies, beginning around 8,000 years ago, led to the release of significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which may have contributed to the warming of the Earth's climate. [12]
It is difficult to accurately assess the extent of depopulation that occurred during both the 1500s and 1600s, as reliable population data from this period is limited. However it is known that this period was one of significant upheaval and change, with many regions experiencing significant population drops due to wars, plagues, famines, and natural disasters. The bubonic plague, for instance, killed between 75 and 200 million people in Europe alone. It is also believed that an onset of disease during the Little Ice Age may have led to further depopulation. [13] The massacre and death of indigenous populations in the Americas following the Spanish conquests, may have been a major contributor as agricultural land fell out of use and reforested. [14]
This decline in population meant that cultivated lands became unkempt, allowing for the regrowth of wild plants. This is perceived to be the cause for the drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the sixteenth century thus exacerbating the extreme cooling period. However, of the causes, depopulation is the least significant. [15]
In historical records, the Grindelwald Fluctuation is characterised by a further drop in temperatures and more frequent cold spells throughout many parts of the world. [16] The more notable records; written by a Jacobean weather enthusiast in Bristol, chronicle some of the effects the weather Fluctuation had on agriculture and society. [17] They specifically discuss food shortages and crop failures taking precedence throughout the area. [18]
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. The process that forms volcanoes is called volcanism.
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. The period has been conventionally defined as extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries, but some experts prefer an alternative time-span from about 1300 to about 1850.
Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. Climate change may refer to any time in Earth's history, but the term is now commonly used to describe contemporary climate change, often popularly referred to as global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution, the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities.
Volcanism, vulcanism, volcanicity, or volcanic activity is the phenomenon where solids, liquids, gases, and their mixtures erupt to the surface of a solid-surface astronomical body such as a planet or a moon. It is caused by the presence of a heat source, usually internally generated, inside the body; the heat is generated by various processes, such as radioactive decay or tidal heating. This heat partially melts solid material in the body or turns material into gas. The mobilized material rises through the body's interior and may break through the solid surface.
1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1 °F). Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any on record between 1766 and 2000, resulting in crop failures and major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and periodic intervals of explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions, although some have collapsed summit craters called calderas. The lava flowing from stratovolcanoes typically cools and solidifies before spreading far, due to high viscosity. The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high to intermediate levels of silica, with lesser amounts of less viscous mafic magma. Extensive felsic lava flows are uncommon, but have traveled as far as 15 km (9 mi).
The volcanic winter of 536 was the most severe and protracted episode of climatic cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2,000 years. The volcanic winter was caused by at least three simultaneous eruptions of uncertain origin, with several possible locations proposed in various continents. Most contemporary accounts of the volcanic winter are from authors in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, although the impact of the cooler temperatures extended beyond Europe. Modern scholarship has determined that in early AD 536, an eruption ejected massive amounts of sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, which reduced the solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface and cooled the atmosphere for several years. In March 536, Constantinople began experiencing darkened skies and lower temperatures.
A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, sulfur-rich, particularly explosive volcanic eruption. Climate effects are primarily dependent upon the amount of injection of SO2 and H2S into the stratosphere where they react with OH and H2O to form H2SO4 on a timescale of a week, and the resulting H2SO4 aerosols produce the dominant radiative effect. Volcanic stratospheric aerosols cool the surface by reflecting solar radiation and warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation for several years. Moreover, the cooling trend can be further extended by atmosphere–ice–ocean feedback mechanisms. These feedbacks can continue to maintain the cool climate long after the volcanic aerosols have dissipated.
This glossary of climate change is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to climate change, global warming, and related topics.
Huaynaputina is a volcano in a volcanic high plateau in southern Peru. Lying in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it was formed by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate under the continental South American Plate. Huaynaputina is a large volcanic crater, lacking an identifiable mountain profile, with an outer stratovolcano and three younger volcanic vents within an amphitheatre-shaped structure that is either a former caldera or a remnant of glacial erosion. The volcano has erupted dacitic magma.
Hoodoo Mountain, sometimes referred to as Hoodoo Volcano, is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is located 25 kilometres northeast of the Alaska–British Columbia border on the north side of the Iskut River opposite of the mouth of the Craig River. With a summit elevation of 1,850 metres and a topographic prominence of 900 metres, Hoodoo Mountain is one of many prominent peaks within the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. Its flat-topped summit is covered by an ice cap more than 100 metres thick and at least 3 kilometres in diameter. Two valley glaciers surrounding the northwestern and northeastern sides of the mountain have retreated significantly over the last hundred years. They both originate from a large icefield to the north and are the sources of two meltwater streams. These streams flow along the western and eastern sides of the volcano before draining into the Iskut River.
Throughout Earth's climate history (Paleoclimate) its climate has fluctuated between two primary states: greenhouse and icehouse Earth. Both climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with the much smaller glacial and interglacial periods, which occur as alternating phases within an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years. There are five known icehouse periods in Earth's climate history, namely the Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, Late Paleozoic and Late Cenozoic glaciations.
Between March and June 2010 a series of volcanic events at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland caused enormous disruption to air travel across Western Europe.
Mount Tambora is a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in present-day Indonesia, then part of the Dutch East Indies, and its 1815 eruption was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded human history. This volcanic explosivity index (VEI) 7 eruption ejected 37–45 km3 of dense-rock equivalent (DRE) material into the atmosphere, and was the most recent confirmed VEI-7 eruption.
The Heard Island glaciers covered 79 percent of Heard Island itself, in 1947, covering 288 km2; by 1988, this had decreased by 11 percent to 257 km2. The glaciers fall under the Antarctic Environmental Gradient, which spans 30 degrees of latitude and includes a range of macro-climatic zones from cool temperate islands to the frigid and arid Antarctic continent. Glaciers extend from 2745 m to sea level, with ice up to 150 m deep. The geologic movement of the glaciers can appear fast-flowing due to the steep slope and high precipitation, and are particularly sensitive to climatic fluctuations. Measurements between 1947 and 1980 show glacial retreat, particularly on the eastern flanks, is correlated with changes in weather patterns.
Tectonic–climatic interaction is the interrelationship between tectonic processes and the climate system. The tectonic processes in question include orogenesis, volcanism, and erosion, while relevant climatic processes include atmospheric circulation, orographic lift, monsoon circulation and the rain shadow effect. As the geological record of past climate changes over millions of years is sparse and poorly resolved, many questions remain unresolved regarding the nature of tectonic-climate interaction, although it is an area of active research by geologists and palaeoclimatologists.
The Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) was a long-lasting Northern Hemispheric cooling period in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, during the period known as Late Antiquity. The period coincides with three large volcanic eruptions in 535/536, 539/540 and 547. The volcanic winter of 536 was the early phenomenon of the century-long global temperature decline. One study suggested a global cooling of 2 °C (3.6 °F).
In 1257, a catastrophic eruption occurred at Samalas, a volcano on the Indonesian island of Lombok. The event had a probable Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7, making it one of the largest volcanic eruptions during the Holocene epoch. It left behind a large caldera that contains Lake Segara Anak. Later volcanic activity created more volcanic centres in the caldera, including the Barujari cone, which remains active.
Dagomar Degroot is an environmental historian, author, and professor at Georgetown University. He co-founded the Climate History Network, an organization of scholars who study past climate change, and established HistoricalClimatology.com, a popular website that explains why studying past climate change matters today. In 2018, he published a book, The Frigid Golden Age, that argues that the Dutch Republic - precursor state to the present-day Netherlands - was resilient and even adaptive in the face of a period of cold climate known as the Little Ice Age. The book was named by the Financial Times as one of the top ten history books of 2018.
Little Ice Age volcanism refers to the massive volcanic activities during the Little Ice Age. Scientists suggested a hypothesis that volcanism was the major driving force of the global cooling among the other natural factors, i.e. the sunspot activities by orbital forcing and greenhouse gas. The Past Global Change (PAGES), a registered paleo-science association for scientific research and networking on past global changes in the University of Bern, Switzerland, suggested that from 1630 to 1850, a total of 16 major eruptions and cooling events had taken place. When a volcano erupts, ashes burst out of the vent together with magma and forms a cloud in the atmosphere. The ashes act as an isolating layer that block out a proportion of solar radiation, causing global cooling. The global cooling effect impacts ocean currents, atmospheric circulation and cause social impacts such as drought and famine. Wars and rebellions were therefore triggered worldwide in the Little Ice Age. It was suggested that the crisis on Ottoman Empire and Ming-Qing Transition in China were typical examples that closely correlated with Little Ice Age.