Vesuvius/Avellino, one possible source of seventeenth century BC climatic disturbances

Abstract

THE eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 (as described by Pliny) is the archetype^1–4 of explosive 'plinian' eruptions which can cause recur-rent local destruction and which may affect global climate through aerosol emissions^5–7. Studies of the past eruptions of such vol-canoes require accurate age determinations, especially if the erup-tions are to be correlated with distant events. Here we use materials from two plinian eruptions of Vesuvius, the AD 79 and the preceding Avelline^1,8 event, to test the ¹⁴C methods that often provide these ages. Our ¹⁴C ages for charred samples and corrected soil reservoirs buried by the Avellino eruption averaged to 3,360 ±40 BP (1617–1703 cal BC), 200–500 years later than the original ¹⁴C ages of soil humic carbon^9,10 and total organic carbon¹¹. Furthermore, a re-evaluation of the ¹⁴C data for the Mount St Helens Yⁿ and Aniakchak II eruptions suggests that these major plinian eruptions may also have occurred in the seventeenth century BC. The ¹⁴C ages for these three eruptions are identical, within uncertainties, to that of the 'Minoan’ eruption of Thera (Santorini), which has often been correlated with mid-seventeenth century BC disturb-ances recorded in tree-ring series^12,13 and ice-core layers¹⁴. Addi-tional information is still required to distinguish which, if any, of the eruptions relate to these records.