Robock, Alan and Melissa P. Free, 1996: The volcanic record in ice cores for the past 2000 years. in Climatic Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2000 Years, edited by P. D. Jones, R. S. Bradley, and J. Jouzel, (Springer-Verlag, Berlin), 533-546.
ABSTRACT:

Although it has been possible to construct a new index of global volcanism using ice core adidity and sulfate records for the period from 1850 to the present, for the 2000 year period, there are fewer ice cores available, and dating problems become more serious, especially for Antartctic cores. We have compared all the ice cores available for the past 2000 years with the Dust Veil Index (DVI) and the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) for this period. And Ice core-Volcanic Index constructed for the period 453 A.D. to the present shows little agreement with the DVI or VEI. Except for a very few eruptions, the ice core record currently available is insufficient to delineate the climatic forcing by explosive volcanic eruptions before about 1200 for the Northern Hemisphere and before 1850 for the Southern Hemisphere. Additional ice cores, however, combined with geological and biological information, will allow this to be done in the future.



Prepared by Alan Robock (robock@envsci.rutgers.edu ) - Last updated on April 21, 1999