Sent in by William this is a testimony to how cleverly some peoples brains work – even a long ways a way from the fireworks. That might not sound like grammar but is a hat tip to the volcanologist at the heart of this finding – see https://www.msn.com/science/ecology/scientists-identify-mystery-volcano-that-cooled-the-world-in-1831/arAA1wZR117 … we are told, scientists identify the volcano that cooled the world in 1831. It has now been identified as the Zavaritskii volcano in the Kuril Islands, to the north of Japan and south of Kamchutka [and Russian east Asia]. The discovery comes via volcanologist William Hutchison from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. The clue comes from ice cores from Greenland and chemical analysis of ash shards found in the ice. Modelling placed it either in Japan or the uninhabited Kuril Islands. Finding the correct match involved collaboration with the Japanese and Russian. Follow up will involve scouring 19th century libraries for reports of eruptions, or changes in the environment that can be taken back to an eruption.
The same story pops up at https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/05/mystery-volcano-that-lowered-global-temperatures-nearly-2-degrees-fahrenheit-in-1831-identified/ … mostly because it involved climate change. This is reflected in the comments which are disappointing. Mind you, I gave up a little way in. They might have got better later on.
For some reason the MSN link won’t work. It may be due to the web browser Bing which differs from my one. Hence, another link as an alternative – go to https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-mystery-volcano-that-cooled-the-globe-in-1831 … and to keep you up to date, Willis Eschenbach is disputing the idea that global cooling in the 1830s had anything to do with a volcanic eruption and produced a chart on a new post at WattsUpWithThat – see https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/07/volcanic-ruminations/ …. . The 1840s were also very cool – and wet. The wet weather led to the blight outbreak that was particularly bad in Scotland and Ireland. There might be some cause to look at this again – but that does not detract from the research of Hutchison. In fact, on the graph produced by Eschanbach the 1940s drop down to much cooler temperatures than 1831 – althoughg that is placed on a downward slope. It is also a fact that the 1640s, 1740s, 1840s and the 2040s also coincided with a sharp cooling that has never been explained. This may suggest the earth encounters a band of dust and debris at 100 year intervals. It doesn’t seem to apply to any known solar cycle.