The volcano that cooled the planet by erupting was found 200 years later.

   / @golahura   The volcano that cooled the planet by erupting was found 200 years later.

The volcano that cooled the planet by erupting in 1831 has finally been found.

This event, considered one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 19th century, caused temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere to drop by 1 degree. As a result of the cooling climate, crops died and famines broke out in various places.

However, it was not known which volcano the eruption occurred at until now.

Researchers led by Dr. William Hutchison from the University of Saint Andrews in the United Kingdom detected the volcano by analyzing ash trapped in the Greenland ice sheet.

The study, whose findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS, linked the devastating event to the Zavaritski Volcano in the Kuril Islands between Russia and Japan.

Thanks to devices that monitor seismic activity and low-orbit satellites, it is almost impossible not to detect a volcanic eruption anywhere on Earth today.

But detecting such an event on a remote, uninhabited island nearly 200 years ago would have been a challenge.

The 1831 eruption had previously been linked to Babuyan Claro in the Philippines or Ferdinandea in the Mediterranean, but these theories had not been supported by studies.

The team behind the new study examined ice cores in Greenland and found that the amount of sulfur indicated that an eruption occurred in the Northern Hemisphere in 1831.

Caldera
The Zavaritski Caldera probably formed after the 1831 eruption (NASA)

The scientists also analyzed ash and volcanic glass fragments no larger than 0.02 millimeters in length.

The team, working with colleagues in Russia and Japan, found that the samples matched those taken from the Zavaritski Caldera on Simushir Island.

Dr. “When we analyzed two ash samples in the lab, one from the volcano and one from the ice core, it was a real eureka moment,” Hutchison says.

I couldn’t believe the numbers matched exactly. I then spent a long time researching the date and size of the eruption in the Kuril records to convince myself that the match was real.

The caldera on the island was found to have formed between 1700 and 1900. Scientists believe the volcanic collapse was caused by the 1831 event.

Before the new findings, the last known eruption at Zavaritskiy occurred in 800 BC.

The study also highlights the need to keep a close eye on volcanoes in remote areas.

Dr. “There are so many volcanoes like this, and that highlights how difficult it will be to predict when or where the next big eruption might occur,” Hutchison said.

As scientists and as a society, we need to think about how we will coordinate an international response if a big eruption like the one in 1831 happens.