An erupting volcano may have kicked off a chain of events that led to the swift dance of the Black Plague across Europe in the 14th century, in a pandemic that killed tens of millions of people.
New analyses of tree ring data, ice cores and historical accounts suggest that a powerful volcanic eruption somewhere in the tropics around 1345 sent clouds of ash around the world, darkening the skies over Europe, researchers report December 4 in Communications Earth & Environment. The ash lingered through several growing seasons, turning Europe’s climate colder and wetter — and that, in turn, caused widespread crop failure across southern Europe and the Mediterranean