Tree-ring, ice core and volcano experts teamed up to identify one of the most climatically impactful volcanic eruptions in 4,000 years – Aniakchak II.
Tree-ring, ice core and volcano experts teamed up to identify one of the most climatically impactful volcanic eruptions in 4,000 years – Aniakchak II. In the process, they narrowed down potential dates for the Thera volcano eruption.
A University of Arizona tree-ring expert is closer than ever to pinning down the date of the infamous Thera volcano eruption – a goal she has pursued for decades.
Charlotte Pearson, an associate professor in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, is lead author of a new paper in PNAS Nexus that combines a mosaic of techniques to confirm the source of a volcanic eruption in 1628 B.C. While the eruption was previously thought to be Thera on the Greek island of Santorini, Pearson and her colleagues found instead that it was Alaskan volcano Aniakchak II.
The finding helps researchers narrow down when the actual Thera eruption took place.
Read more at University of Arizona
Image: The volcanic craters of Aniakchak II (left) and Thera (right). (Credit: Helga Weber/University of Bern)
