Super Volcano

“In AD 535-536 mankind was hit by one of the greatest natural disasters ever to occur …. It blotted out much of the light and heat of the sun for 18 months and resulted, directly or indirectly in climatic chaos, famine, migration, war and massive political change on virtually every continent”.

The contemporary Roman historian Procopius described the mystery climatic disaster: “The sun gave forth its light without brightness like the moon during this whole year.”

Sixth century historian and prominent church leader John of Ephesus wrote of 535 AD in his ‘Historiae Ecclesiasicae’ (‘Church Histories’), “There was a sign from the sun, the like of which had never been seen and reported before. The sun became dark and its darkness lasted for 18 months. Each day, it shone for about four hours, and still this light was only a feeble shadow. Everyone declared that the sun would never recover its full light again.”

Another 6th Century writer Zacharias of Mytilene wrote, “The sun began to be darkened by day and the moon by night.”

A Roman official known as John the Lydian reported that “the sun became dim for nearly the whole year.”

In Italy a Senior local civil servant, Cassiodorus Sentaro wrote in 536, “We marvel to see no shadows of ourselves at noon….We have had a spring without mildness and a summer without heat.”

In 536 the Japanese Great King Senka wrote, “Yellow gold and ten thousand strings of cash cannot cure hunger. What avails a thousand boxes of pearls to him who is starving of cold?”

“In the late 1960s an American tree-ring specialist, Valmore La Marche of the University of Arizona, collected a substantial number of high-altitude bristlecone-pine tree-ring samples from Campito Mountain in California. They showed a reduction in tree-ring width (i.e. tree growth), suggesting climatic deterioration, from 535/536 with a much more serious deterioration in 539. Growth did not then return to normality until the late 550s.”

“In the 1980s, another American academic, Louis Scuderi of the University of Boston, collected a large number of foxtail-pine tree-ring samples from California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and these told a similar story, although the foxtail-pine data suggested that the period of climatic deterioration lasted even longer … almost 40 years”.

(Note: He does mention that low-altitude tree-ring evidence from New Mexico and Arizona shows no evidence of climatic problems in the years following 535).

“In Yucatan (south-east Mexico) … painstaking analysis of lake deposits over recent years has revealed evidence of a severe multi-decade (20 to 50 years) drought which seems to have started in the mid sixth century…. The research carried out by scientists from the University of Florida and published in 1996 revealed that the sixth century drought was the first such event for almost 1,000 years and was not repeated for another three centuries.”

“Tree-ring evidence from Scandinavia and western Europe also reveals a huge reduction in tree growth in the years 536-542, not recovering fully until the 550s.”

“Tree-ring evidence from the British Isles shows that tree growth slowed down significantly in 535-536 and did not fully recover until 555”.

“In South America, tree-ring data obtained from ancient Fitzroya conifer timbers have revealed that a dramatic cooling of temperature took place in AD 540… 540 was the coldest summer for the past 1,600 years.”

The 535 event was associated with some kind of dust / chemical pollution. In 541 the 13th Century British historian Roger of Wendover wrote, “There dropped real blood from the clouds, and a dreadful mortality ensued.”

“In China in 536 there was drought and famine and “yellow dust rained like snow… The crops were ruined the following year by snow in August.””

“Starting in the 530s, a horrific 32-year long drought devastated parts of South America.”

The global catastrophe caused drought and flooding. Climactic extremes continued for roughly 30 years after the event.

“An analysis of British weather between 480 and 650 confirms that the period 535-555 was abnormally unstable.”