XVI INQUA Congress

Paper No. 10
Presentation Time: 11:10 AM

ABSOLUTE DATING OF THE CLIMATIC EVENT IN THE 6'TH CENTURY


LARSEN, Lars Berg and CLAUSEN, Henrik B., Department of Geophysics, Univ of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, Copenhagen, 2100 OE, Denmark, lbl@gfy.ku.dk

Various sources, historical, archaeological, geological and geophysical indicate a climatic catastrophe in the 6'th century. In the Greenland ice cores we have a candidate for creating such a catastrophic event. We have a spike in the record of sulfuric acid, followed by a temperature decrease. Investigations of the chemical data indicate a very large unknown volcanic eruption in the order of magnitude of the Tambora AD 1815 eruption. That it was a global event is verified from the Antarctic ice cores. Using the latest data, from the North GRIP ice core correlated to the other ice cores drilled in Greenland and applying a new technique in counting annual layers, we were able to make an absolute dating of the climatic event in the 6'th century.