Pollution and paradigms: lessons from Icelandic volcanism for continental flood basalt studies
Introduction
Continental flood basalt (CFB) eruptions are plausibly correlated with a number of the extinction events apparent in the palaeontological record (Courtillot, 1999, Wignall, 2001), which has prompted questions as to the mechanisms by which volcanic activity of this style may be able to critically stress and modify environments. Inevitably, global cooling by volcanic aerosols is the mechanism that has received attention, but the geological record frequently indicates increases in the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at these times (Wignall, 2001), which may be opposing evidence for the operation of a cooling mechanism over the long term. By studying the environmental effects associated with recent Icelandic fissure volcanism, which is the closest current analogue for CFB activity, it may be possible to gain a better understanding of the environmental impacts of CFB volcanism. In this paper, the environmental impacts of the 1783 AD Laki Fissure eruption will be briefly reviewed, followed by consideration of the potential consequences should the peak output of this event been sustained for a year.
Section snippets
Laki Fissure eruption
By studying the environmental impacts of the this eruption, which are reviewed in outline below, we may be able to gain insights into the range of environmental mechanisms that could have been affected by CFB episodes and be able to construct more effective models, which relate CFB episodes to mass extinction events. For a few weeks of its 7-month life, the output of the AD 1783–1784 Laki Fissure eruption approached the scale of a single episode of a CFB eruption (Thordarson and Self, 1996).
Environmental impacts of the Laki Fissure eruption
In Iceland, the environmental impacts of the emitted gases were severe. Farmland was abandoned, crops and pasture were destroyed, mainly by sulphuric acid deposition and both people and livestock appear to have died through a combination of acid deposition, fluorosis, disease and starvation (Thórarinsson, 1969, Ogilvie, 1986, Steingrimson, 1998, Thordarsson, 2003a, Thordarsson, 2003b). The experience of Iceland in 1783 and the suffering the people endured in the years that followed, serve to
Critical synergies
Through June and July 1783, the eruption released over 80 Tg of SO2 into the atmosphere. The emitted sulphur generated a persistent acid fog which had a complex impact upon the environment including, extreme weather, acidification of still waters, acid damage to plants and ill health, disease and death. A key component of the severity of these events appears to be the concurrent atmospheric circulation patterns. Kington (1988) has produced a weather map for Europe for each day of the 1780s.
The Laki Fissure continental flood basalt
The following discussion is inevitably speculative, but it considers the likely range of environmental impacts that could be expected had the Laki Fissure eruption maintained its peak output for a whole year, and, in essence, resembled a single lava flow of a CFB episode, for instance the Roza flow of the Colombia River basalt group (Thordarson and Self, 1996). Several basic assumptions are made here to produce this scenario: (1) that 80 Tg of sulphur are released every 50 days throughout the
Discussion
Severe though they actually were, had the Laki Fissure maintained its peak output for an entire year, the environmental consequences would have led to an environmental crisis. Rather than most of the damage to the environment being confined to a brief period between June and July, acid rain and aerosols would have been deposited repeatedly. Between June 8th 1783–June 8th 1784 stable high-pressure systems dominated the weather of Europe on 11 separate episodes totalling 147 days, during which
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges fruitful discussion with Stephen Self and the assistance of R. Rabartin.
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