New Research Suggests That A Volcanic Eruption May Have Triggered A Butterfly Effect That Caused The Black Death
Public DomainA manuscript illustration by Pierart dou Tielt showing the people of Tournai, Belgium, burying victims of the Black Death.The Black Death was the most devastating pandemic to ravage Europe, killing up to half of the continents population between 1348 and 1349. It is widely accepted that the disease was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but the circumstances of how it spread so rapidly are less clear. Now, a team of scholars may have found the answer.New research suggests the devastation may have begun with a volcanic eruption in the year 1345, which then led to a series of events that brought the deadly disease to Europe: climate shock, famine, and trade in the Black Sea. These circumstances were explored in a new study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The Black Death, Europes Deadliest PandemicThe Black Death was the deadliest plague to ever hit Europe, but for centuries, the circumstances of how it began and how it ended remained elusive. One theory claims that the Siege of Kaffa in 1346 kickstarted the spread of the disease. Regardless of how it started, however, the scale of its devastation was apocalyptic.Historians estimate the plague killed at least 50 million people across Eurasia, wiping out approximately 30 to 50 percent of Europes total population. Entire villages were abandoned, and urban centers became mass graveyards. It also completely reshaped society. The massive loss of life created an acute labor shortage, which then empowered the surviving peasantry. Workers could demand higher wages, effectively accelerating the end of the feudal system of serfdom. Wellcome Library, LondonThe plague of Florence in 1348, as described in Boccaccios Decameron.Scientists have identified the primary culprit as the bacterium Yersinia pestis and traced its origins to Central Asia, observing that it spread westward along the Silk Road and maritime trade routes. It was transmitted chiefly by fleas living on black rats, which were common passengers on merchant ships. When these rats died, the fleas jumped to humans, transmitting their bacteria through bites. In the cramped, unsanitary conditions of medieval cities, the disease spread with terrifying speed, manifesting in painful, swollen lymph nodes (buboes), fever, and rapid death.But the situation wasnt quite so simple. Why, for example, had Europeans increasingly relied on trade with countries around the Black Sea? How did the disease become so widespread?Scholars have debated these questions for years, but a new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe suggests a seemingly unrelated event a volcanic eruption in 1345 may have been the inciting incident for the pandemic.How A Volcanic Eruption May Have Caused The Black PlagueThe search for answers began when Martin Bauch, a medieval and environmental historian who studies historic famine, was looking through records and found that northwestern Italy had faced a devastating crop failure in late 1345. This came after a long, unusual period of rainstorms and the Black Death began just three years later.Perhaps, Bauch thought, there might be some connection. Looking through further records showed that the crop failure had made Mediterranean cities desperate. They had exhausted their food supplies and were forced to import grain from the Black Sea region to avoid starvation, unwittingly importing the deadly Yersinia pestis bacterium alongside it. For more than a century, these powerful Italian city states had established long-distance trade routes across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, allowing them to activate a highly efficient system to prevent starvation, Bauch told the BBC. But ultimately, these would inadvertently lead to a far bigger catastrophe.But what had caused the crop failure in the first place?University of CambridgeA map showing how the Black Death spread via trade routes.To answer this question, Bauch and colleagues analyzed the rings of ancient trees from Spains Pyrenees Mountains and discovered that theyd seemingly experienced slowed growth during the summers of 1345 and 1346. This aligned with an increase in sulfur trapped in the worlds ice sheets from the same time period. Together, these clues suggest that a volcanic eruption somewhere in the world likely the tropics in 1345 had deposited massive amounts of ash into the atmosphere that subsequently blocked out sunlight and lowered global temperatures.If the researchers are correct, this change in climate likely sparked the famine that forced the increased import of grain from the Black Sea and introduced the Black Death to Europe. After all, a similar thing happened when Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, leading to the infamous Year Without a Summer.Although this research focuses on a disease that ravaged the worlds population nearly a millennium ago, understanding how the Black Death spread could be imperative for preventing future pandemics, too.After learning about the volcanic eruption that may have led to the Black Death, read about how a volcanic eruption led to Napoleons defeat at Waterloo. Then, see the before and after photos of the eruption of Mount St. Helens.The post New Research Suggests That A Volcanic Eruption May Have Triggered A Butterfly Effect That Caused The Black Death appeared first on All That's Interesting.
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