Reader J.H. Walker comments on a BBC article entitled
“El Chichon eruption implicated in Maya upheaval.”
Scientists think they can tie the disruption that hit Maya civilization in the 6th Century to an eruption of the El Chichon volcano, says the BBC article.
A Dutch team investigating ash-fall deposits say the age of the deposits is a good match for the so-called Maya hiatus,”a time of cultural upheaval, a run of poor harvests, outbreaks of the plague, and abandonment of their many favored lowland sites.
A sulphur spike in ice core records indicates there was a big eruption somewhere in AD 540, the team found, and that “very likely led to global climate impacts and severe environmental degradation in the region of the blast.”
El Chichon last erupted in spectacular style in 1982, destroying local communities and killing 2,000 people. El Chichon roared into life with a tremendous explosion that sent a column of ash and gases 10 miles high within an hour and spewed vast quantities of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere.
Two major eruptions within a very short time
There are actually two closely spaced signatures in the ice record, with the second occurring in AD 536, a time of “very strong cooling,” says Mathew Toohey from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany.
“This double event would have been clearly the strongest volcanic forcer of climate of at least the last 1,200 years, probably more like 2,000 years,” says Dr. Toohey. His simulations suggest a reduction in average summer temperatures at that time across Northern Europe of two degrees.
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Now here’s Mr Walker’s take on this:
El Chichon the culprit in Maya upheaval?
By J.H. Walker
El Chichon is one of the three volcanic T6 and above eruptions during the 6th century Solar Minimum.
The link is between volcanism and Solar minimums, due mainly to the orbital and gravitational perturbations during the trefoil orbit of the Sun around the Solar System BarryCentre.
Not only does the Sun reduce in energy output, but it causes the Earth to add to the maelstrom with fire and Brimstone.
The point I would like to make is that the distant solar-caused gravity effect is hidden by the lagging in time foreground effects of a series of massive volcanic events completely over shadowing the Sun’s periodic reduced energy periods.
Mankind has a significant problem in seeing further then the end of our collective noses, much less than 1 AU away, and the gyrations of our Sun over a series of orbits caused by the moderation effects of the Jovian Gas Giants.
We are seeing a cause and a much delayed volcanic effect, with the latter so large and near that it swamps the individuals caught up in the human disaster. It is only after 1500 years that we are able to see the overall picture in all its horrifying details.
We truly live on a dangerous and unforgiving planet.
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See entire BBC article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36086096
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