#266553 - Thu May 12 2005 10:00 PM
Year of Yellow Snow
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Administrator
Registered: Sat Mar 29 2003
Posts: 16595
Loc: Western Canada
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No, it has nothing to do with Huskies!
I'm currently reading a novel set in the year 535. Apparently something happened in that year (probably a massive eruption of the volcano Krakatoa) that caused the sun to dim, yellow rain and snow (sulphur) to fall over much of Asia, and no summer for the year 535. This caused enormous disruption throughout the entire world; famine of course, war, migration, political and economic upheaval. It was probably one of the causal events of much of the modern world.
So, why haven't I ever heard of it before? Am I alone here? Has anybody else ever heard of this? It seems to me that this is the sort of thing that we should have been taught in school - even if the exact cause was not known, an upheaval of this magnitude is worth at least noting. Maybe I went to a lousy school, and all the rest of you are laughing at me, but I don't think so.
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#266554 - Fri May 13 2005 04:52 AM
Re: Year of Yellow Snow
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Prolific
Registered: Fri Jun 06 2003
Posts: 1336
Loc: Mumbai India
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I haven't learnt anything about this in school, even though I've completed all my years of studying history. But then again, I did, for sure, have truly lousy history textbooks.
I Wikipediad "535" and found an article titled "Climate changes of 535-536", which I quote:
Quote:
In the years 535 CE and 536 CE, several remarkable aberrations in world climate took place. The Byzantine historian Procopius recorded of 536 CE, "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness ... and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.". Tree ring analysis by dendrochronologist Mike Baillie, Queen's University, Belfast, shows abnormally little growth in Irish oak in 536 CE and another sharp drop in 542 CE, after a partial recovery. Similar patterns are recorded in tree rings from Sweden and Finland, in California's Sierra Nevada and in rings from Chilean Alerce trees.
Further phenomena reported by a number of independent contemporary sources:
* low temperatures, even snow during the summer
* dark clouds, only few hours of sunlight during the day
* floods in formerly dry regions
* crop failures
It has been conjectured that these changes were due to ashes or dust thrown into the air after the impact of a comet or meteorite, or after the eruption of a volcano (a phenomenon known as "volcanic winter").
A similar, lesser episode of climatic aberration was also observed in 1816 CE, popularly known as the Year Without A Summer, which has been connected to the explosion of the volcano Tambora in Sumbawa, Indonesia.
In a 1999 book, David Keys, supported by work of the American volcanologist Ken Wohletz, suggested that the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded at the time and caused the changes. He further speculated that the climate changes may have contributed to various developments, such as the emergence of bubonic plague (the Plague of Justinian), the migration of Mongolian tribes towards the West, the end of the Persian empire, the rise of Islam and the end of various civilizations in Central and South America. PBS based a documentary, Catastrophe!, on Keys and Wohletz' ideas. These ideas are not widely accepted at this point.
These discoveries seem to be fairly recent and speculative, no wonder they haven't made it to the history textbooks yet. In any case, the feeling I get is that the author of the novel you're reading has highly exaggerated the supposed happenings of that time.
Edited to add link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_changes_of_535-536
Edited by achernar (Fri May 13 2005 04:54 AM)
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#266560 - Mon May 16 2005 12:44 AM
Re: Year of Yellow Snow
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Multiloquent
Registered: Mon Feb 10 2003
Posts: 2167
Loc: Sydney
NSW Australia
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This is an interesting thread filled with interesting posts but sadly I can`t add to as all I keep thinking about is a certain song by Frank Zappa.
_________________________
Responds to stimuli, tries to communicate verbally, follows limited commands, laughs or cries in interaction with loved ones.
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#266561 - Mon May 16 2005 11:33 AM
Re: Year of Yellow Snow
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Nov 12 2003
Posts: 2165
Loc: Nebraska USA
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I've heard of this before. I watched a documentary about supervolcanoes that was really interesting. It touched on the possible, even probable, climactic effects of large volcanic eruptions.
I see no reason why Eurpoean scholars would know what caused their sudden climate changes. Was the island culture of Indonesia well-recorded during that time? Was there good communication? Why should we assume there would be any clear evidence of a volcanic eruption to anyone who was savvy enough to record it?
_________________________
Goodbye Ruth & Betty, my beautiful grandmothers.
Betty Kuzara 1921 - April 5, 2008
Ruth Kellison 1925 - Dec 27, 2007
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