It was an event that caused confusion and wonder, but which to this day had not yet been explained; in 1831 the sun it took on a particular color to say the least, tending towards blue, and the climate suddenly became harsher. Centuries later, an answer seems to have arrived.
When the sun turned blue
A team of researchers from the University of St Andrewsin the United Kingdom. The working group, coordinated by Professor Will Hutchison, managed to do enough research on the situation at the time, so much so as to have a fairly clear idea of what happened. Apparently the person responsible for that phenomenon was the Zavaritskii volcanostill present today on the island of Simushir. His eruption it unleashed something incredible.
According to researchers, the massive volcanic eruption triggered agas emission such that it blocked sunlight, so much so that the sun was perceived as having a different color. Witnesses of the time spoke of a color that ranged from purple to green to blue. It would have been the massive concentration of sulphurous gases that triggered all this, and the effects were seen globally. Researchers, in fact, speak of a global cooling of around 1°C, which led to serious problems throughout the world. In the Northern Hemisphere, moreover, the sun appeared blue color. This particular effect was a consequence of the dispersion and absorption of solar radiation in the dense volcanic aerosol plume.
The results of the study were published in the journal PNAS.
The study
All eyes on the Zavaritskii volcano, on the Simushir island. It is an uninhabited area, and disputed between Russia and Japan. “We have analyzed the ice chemistry at a very high temporal resolution. This allowed us to pinpoint the exact time of the eruption, i.e. the spring-summer of 1831, confirm that it was highly explosive and then extract the tiny fragments of ash“, explained Professor Hutchison, as reported by Independent. “Only in recent years have we developed the ability to extract microscopic ash fragments from polar ice cores and conduct detailed chemical analyses. These fragments are incredibly small, about a tenth the diameter of a human hair.”he added.
The great challenge is precisely that of preparing for other possible episodes of this type.
“There are so many volcanoes like this, which highlights how difficult it will be to predict when or where it might occur next eruption of great magnitude”concluded the expert.