Latest news with #LateAntiqueLittleIceAge
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mini ice age was final death blow to Roman Empire, unusual rocks in Iceland suggest
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A sixth-century "mini" ice age may have been "the straw that broke the camel's back" that led to the final disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, a new study claims. Between A.D. 536 and 547, three separate volcanic eruptions generated enough ash to block out the sun for between 200 and 300 years, cooling the Earth's surface by several degrees. Now, newfound evidence of this mini ice age has been found in Iceland. By studying rocks carried by icebergs from Greenland all the way to Iceland's west coast, a team of researchers has uncovered what they believe is more evidence for the severity of this mini ice age. Their findings, published April 8 in the journal Geology, point to the prolonged cooling being a key factor in the eventual decline of the Western Roman Empire — although not all historians agree. The exact date for the Western Roman Empire's fall is up for debate, with some saying it happened in A.D. 410 with the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths, and others putting it at A.D. 476, with the abdication of Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus. But the cooler climate brought on by the mini ice age could have further strained the unstable region in the aftermath of its fall, fueling the mass migrations that happened at the time, the study's authors said. "The significant environmental and climatic shifts could have influenced migrations, particularly in areas vulnerable to crop failures and famines," study lead author Christopher Spencer, an associate professor of tectonochemistry at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, told Live Science. "The combination of these stressors could have exacerbated the social pressures already present during this period, contributing to the empire's eventual disintegration." Related: Why did Rome fall? Economic crisis, government corruption, pandemic, civil war, invasion — the causes behind the Roman Empire's fall are complex, intertwined and innumerable enough to cause a major headache. In fact, in 1984 the German historian Alexander Demandt compiled a tongue-in-cheek list of 210 reasons behind the empire's decline. Yet the intractability of the debate hasn't stopped scholars and scientists from coming up with new suggestions. In 2016, a paper published in Nature Geoscience used data gathered from tree rings to suggest a shift in climate as a key factor in Rome's demise, namely a "Late Antique Little Ice Age" caused by volcanic activity. The theory is ostensibly supported by historical records. Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea reported a sunless sky occurring as "a portent of great terror" in the year 536, preceded by complaints of unusual cold and crop failures such that "neither war nor plague nor anything bringing death was lacking among men." This climate shift was felt around the world, having been linked to historical events that include the collapse of China's Northern Wei dynasty; the decline of Teotihuacan in Mexico; and the Eastern Roman Empire's Plague of Justinian. The new study's connection to those tumultuous years began tangentially, after the scientists behind it used satellite images to discover that a raised beach terrace on Iceland's west coast was unusually white in color compared to its basalt black neighbors. The team explored the beach on foot and found a number of unusual granite rocks on a layer of the beach dated between A.D. 500 and 700. After crushing a sample of the rocks and subjecting the zircon crystals found within to chemical analysis, the researchers pinpointed the rocks' origins to Greenland, roughly 177 miles (285 kilometers) away at its shortest distance. "The movement of rock fragments from Greenland to Iceland is primarily due to ice-rafting, a process in which icebergs, laden with debris from glaciers, are carried across the ocean by currents," Spencer said. If large numbers of Greenland icebergs were drifting to Iceland when this layer of the beach was formed, the scientists suggest it could add to evidence of a Late Antique Little Ice Age, and particularly one that was severe enough to have had an impact on the dwindling Western Roman Empire. "As the glaciers in Greenland expanded during the Late Antique Little Ice Age, large quantities of debris were entrained in the ice," Spencer said. "Icebergs calved off the Greenland Ice Sheet and were transported by the East Greenland and East Iceland currents, ultimately depositing these rock fragments on Iceland's coast when the icebergs melted." However, the researchers emphasized that this mini ice age occurred when the Western Roman Empire was already in decay. The event postdates much of the empire's fall — the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed 60 years before the cold spell, and Rome was sacked by Goths and Vandals and its army defeated at Adrianople many years before this. That said, it's possible that the mini ice age stopped Rome from recovering, as it had before, said Shane Bobrycki, an assistant professor of history at the University of Iowa. "Rome had faced near-existential crises in the third century, and came back from it in the fourth," Bobrycki told Live Science. "So you could say that the decisive role of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (and maybe plague) was in detoothing Justinian's comeback." RELATED STORIES —Ancient garbage heaps show fading Byzantine Empire was 'plagued' by disease and climate change —Why did the Roman Empire split in two? —Roman Empire grew after catastrophic volcanic eruption, study finds Bobrycki said that while he suspects a changing climate played "a major role" in shaping shifts between the Roman and early medieval periods in Western Europe, the causal relationship is far from clear. And migration then — much like today — "is always multifactorial" and split between complex push and pull factors. Even so, understanding the mini ice age's effects on the Western Roman Empire may shed some light on how anthropogenic climate change will affect our globalized world, "making it crucial to understand how these events unfolded in the past," Spencer said. "The impact of climate change, really a huge complex of phenomena, operating on a scale that the human mind struggles to comprehend, is likely to be both large and unpredictable," Bobrycki said. "I think the story of the Late Antique Little Ice Age warns us not to underestimate the ability of climate change to reshape history."
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient rocks tie Roman Empire's collapse to a mini ice age
Exactly what caused the collapse of the mighty Roman Empire has been hotly debated practically since the fall itself. Was economic stagnation primarily to blame, or was it societal decay? Did political conflicts mortally weaken Rome's power, or is its decline owed mostly to a series of invasions from abroad? Was it lead? In reality, the fall of the empire almost certainly occurred through a complex interplay of socio-political factors—but recent research suggests a brief climate crisis may have contributed more than we thought. The new findings were published on April 11 in the journal Geology by a collaborative team from Queen's University Canada, the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Previous analysis indicates that Earth endured a roughly 200–300 year long ice age starting around 540 CE. Scientists believe that powerful volcanic eruptions that hurled massive amounts of ash and debris into the planet's atmosphere lowered global temperatures and reduced sunlight. While it was not as intense as other major ice ages, some researchers have argued that this geologic era helped usher in the final days of Rome. Others, meanwhile, contend that the Late Antique Little Ice Age simply coincided with imperial decline. New evidence supporting the former argument comes from oddly out-of-place rocks collected not from modern areas of the ancient Roman empire, but from Iceland. Although the region is known primarily for its basalt, researchers recently determined certain samples contained miniscule crystals of the mineral zircon. 'Zircons are essentially time capsules that preserve vital information including when they crystallised as well as their compositional characteristics,' said Christopher Spencer, an associate professor at Queen's University and study's lead author. 'The combination of age and chemical composition allows us to fingerprint currently exposed regions of the Earth's surface, much like is done in forensics.' After crushing the rocks and separating out the zircon crystals, Spencer and colleagues determined the minerals spanned three billion years of geologic history that trace specifically back to Greenland. 'The fact that the rocks come from nearly all geological regions of Greenland provides evidence of their glacial origins,' said Tom Gernon, a study co-author and a professor of Earth Science at the University of Southampton. 'As glaciers move, they erode the landscape, breaking up rocks from different areas and carrying them along, creating a chaotic and diverse mixture—some of which ends up stuck inside the ice.' The team argues that the zircon-rich ice could only have formed and drifted hundreds of miles away due to the Late Antique Little Ice Age. According to Gernon, this timing also lines up with a known period of ice-rafting, in which large slabs of ice break off glaciers, drift across the ocean, and subsequently melt to scatter its debris on foreign shores. Although the team obviously can't tie zircon minerals to the Roman Empire's collapse, their lengthy migration inside frozen chunks of glacier further underscore the 6th century ice age's severity. Knowing this, it's easy to see how the chillier era's effects on crops, civil unrest, and mass migrations could further weaken an already shaky Rome. 'When it comes to the fall of the Roman Empire, this climate shift may have been the straw that broke the camel's back,' said Gernon.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Crushed Rocks in Iceland—and May Have Solved the Fall of the Roman Empire
A research team studied unusual rocks in Iceland to better understand the Late Antique Little Ice Age. The team believes that rapid climate cooling contributed to a mass migration of people within Europe. The information comes from tiny zircon crystals found inside the rocks. Unusual small stones on a beach in Iceland may help tell the story of the Roman Empire's demise. A team of researchers from three different continents studied local cobbles—round stones about the size of a human fist—and the mineral clues embedded within them to better understand a dramatic climate event from the sixth century A.D. that coincided with the undoing of one of the world's greatest dynasties. 'When it comes to the fall of the Roman Empire, this climate shift may have been the straw that broke the camel's back,' Tom Gernon, professor of Earth science at the University of Southampton, said in a statement. Historians have long debated the role of rapid cooling as part of the fall of the Roman Empire, but the new rock-based research strengthens the case that a brief (but intense) period of cooling may have hampered an already declining empire and incited a mass population migration that reshaped Europe. The team behind this research published a study describing their findings in the journal Geology. The timing of what is known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age has always intrigued historians studying the ties between the climate and European history. Three massive volcanic eruptions around 540 A.D. likely triggered the brief but impactful climate shift, as volcanic ash blocked sunlight and lowered global temperature for around 200 to 300 years. So, where do these rocks come in? Well, the scientists believe the rocks were carried to Iceland via icebergs formed during the glaciation event, and can now help show the chaotic nature of the climate during that period of history. 'We knew these rocks seemed somewhat out of place because the rock types are unlike anything found in Iceland today,' Christopher Spencer, lead author of the research, said in a statement. The team crushed the rocks in question to analyze the age and composition of zircon crystals locked inside, which helped pinpoint their source. 'Zircons are essentially time capsules that preserve vital information including when they crystalized as well as their compositional characteristics,' Spencer said. 'The combination of age and chemical composition allows us to fingerprint currently exposed regions of the Earth's surface, much like is done in forensics.' The team linked the debris to specific regions in Greenland. 'This is the first direct evidence of icebergs carrying large Greenlandic cobbles to Iceland,' Spencer said. 'On one hand, you're surprised to see anything but basalt in Iceland, but having seem them for the first time, you instantly suspect they arrived by iceberg from Greenland,' Ross Mitchell, a co-author of the study, said in a statement. 'The fact that the rocks come from nearly all geological regions of Greenland provides evidence of their glacial origins,' Gernon said. 'As glaciers move, they erode the landscape, breaking up rocks from different areas and carrying them along, creating a chaotic and diverse mixture—some of which ends up stuck inside the ice.' The team determined the ice-rafted rocks were likely dropped in Iceland in the seventh century, coinciding with a major climate shift known as the Bond 1 event. 'This timing coincides with a known major episode of ice-rafting, where vast chunks of ice break away from glaciers, drift across the ocean, and eventually melt, scattering debris along distant shore,' Gernon said. The 'climate-driven iceberg activity may have been one of the many cascading effects of rapid cooling,' Spencer said, alongside the mass human migrations that spread the population of Europe across the continent, helping to weaken—and eventually extinguish—the Roman Empire. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Telegraph
08-04-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
Mini Ice Age may have fuelled collapse of Roman Empire
A 'Little Ice Age' in the sixth century was so intense it may have been the 'primary driver' in the fall of the Roman Empire, scientists believe. Between 536AD and 547AD, three massive volcanic eruptions blocked out the Sun and ushered in a rapid period of cooling which saw average temperatures fall by several degrees. Researchers at the University of Southampton have found that the mini Ice Age was so intense that it moved rocks from Greenland to Iceland. The scientists found smooth rounded rocks known as 'cobbles' on the beaches of Iceland's west coast which must have been carried on icebergs from Greenland. It suggests that the cooling event sparked changes even more widespread and severe than previously thought, causing major climate upheavals in the northern hemisphere that probably played a pivotal role in the collapse of the Roman Empire. 'When it comes to the fall of the Roman Empire, this climate shift may have been the straw that broke the camel's back,' said Prof Tom Gernon, co-author of the new research and an earth science professor at the University of Southampton. 'The climate was particularly cold at the time – cold enough for icebergs to reach and noticeably impact the geology in Iceland,' Prof Gernon added. 'The Roman Empire was likely already in decline when the Little Ice Age began. However, our findings support the idea that climate change in the northern hemisphere was more severe than previously thought. 'Indeed, it may have been a primary driver of major societal change, rather than just one of several contributing factors.' The period of cooling, dubbed the Late Antique Little Ice Age, lasted around 200 to 300 years. It is known to have coincided with a period of widespread social unrest across Europe and Asia, which saw the Roman empire giving way to the Byzantine era. By that time, the Roman empire had shrunk to the Mediterranean and continued to decline because crop failures induced by the cold, famine and plague. As well as the Romans, the huge climate shift also saw Chinese dynasties falling as well as the Eastern Turkic empire. The new findings, published in the journal Geology, show that the climate disruption reached far into the North Atlantic Ocean. Experts had known that the beach rocks on Iceland's west coast did not belong there but were unsure where they had come from until they studied their age and composition. The team found that the rocks came from Greenland by analysing the age and composition of tiny zircon crystals. Zircon is one of the primary minerals used to determine the age of rocks. 'We knew these rocks seemed somewhat out of place because the rock types are unlike anything found in Iceland today, but we didn't know where they came from,' said Dr Christopher Spencer, associate professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and lead author of the research. 'Zircons are essentially time capsules that preserve vital information including when they crystallised as well as their compositional characteristics. 'The combination of age and chemical composition allows us to fingerprint currently exposed regions of the Earth's surface, much like is done in forensics.' The team discovered that the age of the fragments spanned nearly 3 billion years, and were able to trace the rocks back to specific regions of Greenland. 'This is the first direct evidence of icebergs carrying large Greenlandic cobbles to Iceland,' added Dr Spencer. The rocks were once carved out of the landscape by glaciers on Greenland and would have become embedded in ice which was eventually set adrift as icebergs. The ice-rafted rocks were likely deposited during the seventh century, coinciding with a major climate shift when temperatures warmed and the ground slowly rebounded after the heavy ice sheets melted. Prof Gernon added: 'This timing coincides with a known major episode of ice-rafting, where vast chunks of ice break away from glaciers, drift across the ocean, and eventually melt, scattering debris along distant shores.'
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mini Ice Age may have fuelled collapse of Roman Empire
A 'Little Ice Age' in the sixth century was so intense it may have been the 'primary driver' in the fall of the Roman Empire, scientists believe. Between 536AD and 547AD, three massive volcanic eruptions blocked out the Sun and ushered in a rapid period of cooling which saw average temperatures fall by several degrees. Researchers at the University of Southampton have found that the mini Ice Age was so intense that it moved rocks from Greenland to Iceland. The scientists found smooth rounded rocks known as 'cobbles' on the beaches of Iceland's west coast which must have been carried on icebergs from Greenland. It suggests that the cooling event sparked changes even more widespread and severe than previously thought, causing major climate upheavals in the northern hemisphere that probably played a pivotal role in the collapse of the Roman Empire. 'When it comes to the fall of the Roman Empire, this climate shift may have been the straw that broke the camel's back,' said Prof Tom Gernon, co-author of the new research and an earth science professor at the University of Southampton. 'The climate was particularly cold at the time – cold enough for icebergs to reach and noticeably impact the geology in Iceland,' Prof Gernon added. 'The Roman Empire was likely already in decline when the Little Ice Age began. However, our findings support the idea that climate change in the northern hemisphere was more severe than previously thought. 'Indeed, it may have been a primary driver of major societal change, rather than just one of several contributing factors.' The period of cooling, dubbed the Late Antique Little Ice Age, lasted around 200 to 300 years. It is known to have coincided with a period of widespread social unrest across Europe and Asia, which saw the Roman empire giving way to the Byzantine era. By that time, the Roman empire had shrunk to the Mediterranean and continued to decline because crop failures induced by the cold, famine and plague. As well as the Romans, the huge climate shift also saw Chinese dynasties falling as well as the Eastern Turkic empire. The new findings, published in the journal Geology, show that the climate disruption reached far into the North Atlantic Ocean. Experts had known that the beach rocks on Iceland's west coast did not belong there but were unsure where they had come from until they studied their age and composition. The team found that the rocks came from Greenland by analysing the age and composition of tiny zircon crystals. Zircon is one of the primary minerals used to determine the age of rocks.'We knew these rocks seemed somewhat out of place because the rock types are unlike anything found in Iceland today, but we didn't know where they came from,' said Dr Christopher Spencer, associate professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and lead author of the research. 'Zircons are essentially time capsules that preserve vital information including when they crystallised as well as their compositional characteristics. 'The combination of age and chemical composition allows us to fingerprint currently exposed regions of the Earth's surface, much like is done in forensics.' The team discovered that the age of the fragments spanned nearly 3 billion years, and were able to trace the rocks back to specific regions of Greenland.'This is the first direct evidence of icebergs carrying large Greenlandic cobbles to Iceland,' added Dr Spencer. The rocks were once carved out of the landscape by glaciers on Greenland and would have become embedded in ice which was eventually set adrift as icebergs. The ice-rafted rocks were likely deposited during the seventh century, coinciding with a major climate shift when temperatures warmed and the ground slowly rebounded after the heavy ice sheets melted. Prof Gernon added: 'This timing coincides with a known major episode of ice-rafting, where vast chunks of ice break away from glaciers, drift across the ocean, and eventually melt, scattering debris along distant shores.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
