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Atmospheric Aerosol Loading and Transport Due to the 1783-84 Laki Eruption in Iceland, Interpreted from Ash Particles and Acidity in the GISP2 Ice Core

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. Joseph Fiacco Jr. ,
Thorvaldur Thordarson ,
Mark S. Germani ,
Stephen Self ,
Julie M. Palais ,
Sallie Whitlow  and
Peter M. Grootes
R. Joseph Fiacco Jr.
Affiliation:
Glacier Research Group, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824
Thorvaldur Thordarson
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
Mark S. Germani
Affiliation:
McCrone Associates, Westmont, Illinois 60559
Stephen Self
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
Julie M. Palais
Affiliation:
Glacier Research Group, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824; and Division of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, Washington, DC 20550
Sallie Whitlow
Affiliation:
Glacier Research Group, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824
Peter M. Grootes
Affiliation:
Quaternary Isotope Laboratory, AK-60, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
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Abstract

Glass shards from the A.D. 1783 Laki fissure eruption in Iceland have been identified in the GISP2 ice core from Summit, Greenland, at a level just preceding the major acidity/sulfate peak. Detailed reconstruction of ice stratigraphy, coupled with analyses of solid particles from filtered samples, indicate that a small amount of Laki ash was carried via atmospheric transport to Greenland in the summer of 1783, whereas the main aerosol precipitation occurred in the summer and early fall of 1784. Sulfate concentrations in the ice increase slightly during late summer and fall of 1783 and remain steady throughout the winter due to slow oxidation rates during this season in the Arctic. The sulfate concentration rises dramatically in the spring and summer of 1784, producing a massive sulfate peak, previously believed to have accumulated during the summer of 1783 and commonly used as the marker horizon in Greenland ice core studies. The chronology of ash and acid fallout at the GISP2 site suggests that a significant portion of the Laid eruption plume penetrated the tropopause and that aerosol generated from it remained aloft for at least 1 yr after the eruption. Based on comparisons with other glaciochemical seasonal indicators, abnormally cool conditions prevailed at Summit during the summer of 1784. This further supports the claim that a significant volume of sulfate aerosol remained in the Arctic middle atmosphere well after the eruption had ceased.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , November 1994 , pp. 231 - 240
Copyright
University of Washington

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