St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Frequency of large volcanic eruptions over the past 200 000 years

Thumbnail
View/Open
Wolff_2023_CP_Frequency_large_CC.pdf (1.469Mb)
Date
06/01/2023
Author
Wolff, Eric
Burke, Andrea
Crick, Laura
Doyle, Emily A.
Innes, Helen
Mahony, Sue H.
Rae, James William Buchanan
Severi, Mirko
Sparks, R. Stephen J.
Keywords
QE Geology
3rd-DAS
MCC
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Volcanic eruptions are the dominant cause of natural variability in climate forcing on timescales up to multidecadal. Large volcanic eruptions lead to global-scale climate effects and influence the carbon cycle on long timescales. However, estimating the frequency of eruptions is challenging. Here we assess the frequency at which eruptions with particular deposition fluxes are observed in the EPICA Dome C ice core over the last 200 kyr. Using S isotope analysis we confirm that most of the largest peaks recorded at Dome C are from stratospheric eruptions. The cumulative frequency through 200 kyr is close to linear, suggesting an approximately constant rate of eruptions. There is no evidence for an increase in the rate of events recorded in Antarctica at either of the last two deglaciations. Millennial variability is at the level expected from recording small numbers of eruptions, while multimillennial variability may be partly due to changes in transport efficiency through the Brewer–Dobson circulation. Our record of events with sulfate deposition rates > 20 and >50 mg m−2 contains 678 and 75 eruptions, respectively, over the last 200 kyr. Calibration with data on historic eruptions and analysis of a global Quaternary dataset of terrestrial eruptions indicates that sulfate peaks with deposition rates > 20 and >50 mg m−2 correspond to explosive eruptions of magnitude ≥ 6.5 and ≥7, respectively. The largest recorded eruption deposited just over 300 mg m−2.
Citation
Wolff , E , Burke , A , Crick , L , Doyle , E A , Innes , H , Mahony , S H , Rae , J W B , Severi , M & Sparks , R S J 2023 , ' Frequency of large volcanic eruptions over the past 200 000 years ' , Climate of the Past , vol. 19 , pp. 23–33 . https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-23-2023
Publication
Climate of the Past
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-23-2023
ISSN
1814-9324
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Description
Funding: This research has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust (grant RPG-2015-246), by a Royal Society Professorship (grant no. RP/R/180003), and by a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (CIG14-631752).
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/26937

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter