International scientists found evidence pointing a particular volcano in Indonesia as the cause of the mysterious eruption of a massive volcano in 1257.
Scientists have identified the Samalas Volcano on Lombok Island, Indonesia as the source of the huge eruption which happened in the 13th century. It was so powerful that traces of chemical signatures have traveled as far as the Antarctic and the Arctic regions. European accounts tell of an abrupt climate change, continuous rain, mass floods and disastrous harvests during the medieval age after the eruption.
Although the mountain is no longer the same, which left a bowl-like space now called the Segara Anak Crater Lake, the scientists have significant findings based on their deep investigation.
French Professor Franck Lavigne, co-author of the study from the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, France, said, "We didn't know the culprit at first, but we had the time of the murder and the fingerprints in the form of the geochemistry in the ice cores, and that allowed us to track down the volcano responsible."
The scientists took samples from the polar ice and the Samalas. They analyzed the chemical traces, did radiocarbon dating, and studied the dust and rock characteristics. Their findings revealed that the massive eruption was eventually linked to the 13th century end of Lombok Kingdom.
For the rocks to reach as far as the Polar Regions, the explosion should have been much enormous. The rocks measuring about 10 cubic mi (40 cubic km) were probably spat out by the volcano while the minute substances may have reached more than 25 mi (40 kilometers) up into the air.
There were similar volcanic activities in Ecuador, New Zealand and Mexico recorded in 1257 too. They had been theorized to have caused the enormous explosion one time or another but their radiocarbon dates and geochemistry do not match those from the polar areas and they do not give very strong evidence as much as that from Lombok, Indonesia.
This study was published in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
