[SunkenCiv]

[Issue 2689, p 9]

[SunkenCiv]

Tree rings challenge history
by BBC News Online's Jonathan Amos

Mike Baillie, professor of palaeoecology at Queen's University in Belfast, UK, said it was very clear from the narrowness of growth rings in bog oaks and archaeological timbers that a great catastrophe struck the Earth in AD 540. He said mythical stories certainly seemed to point to a comet striking the Earth at about the right time. He said King Arthur died in this period and some stories talk about long arms in the sky delivering mighty blows. Professor Baillie said chemical analysis would be carried out on the tree rings to investigate the comet idea further. He hopes also to get access to ice cores to see if they record any interesting data that might support the comet theory.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[unspun]

I doubt this is true — everyone knows that human produced carbon emissions cause comets.

[kc8ukw]

Do you read New Scientist? I would occassionally peruse it in our physics library. It’s well put together, but always seemed uber political to me.

[SunkenCiv]

Ancient tree rings give climate clues
Wednesday, 28 March, 2001, 19:09 GMT 20:09 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1247636.stm

Mystery Of Infamous ‘New England Dark Day’ Solved By Tree Rings
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080606145620.htm

Tree-ring reconstructed megadroughts over North America since a.d. 1300
http://www.springerlink.com/content/5478q5t795671806/

[count-your-change]

Were the Dark Ages Triggered by Volcano-Related Climate Changes in the 6th Century?
(If so, was Krakatau volcano the culprit?)
by Ken Wohletz
Los Alamos National Laboratory
LA-UR 00-4608
Copyright © 2000 UC “With no supporting evidence for an impact-related event,........ Writings from China and Indonesia describe rare atmospheric phenomena that possibly point to a volcano in the Indonesian arc. Although radiocarbon dating of eruptions in that part of the world are spotty, there is strong bathymetric and volcanic evidence that Krakatau might have experienced a huge caldera eruption. Accordingly, I encouraged a scientific expedition to be led by Haraldur Sigurdsson to the area. The expedition found a thick pyroclastic deposit, bracketed by appropriate radiometric dates, that suggests such a caldera collapse of a “Proto-Krakatau” did occur perhaps in the 6th century. Bathymetry indicates a caldera some 40 to 60 km in diameter that, with collapse below sea level, could have formed the Sunda Straits, separating Java from Sumatra, as suggested by ancient Javanese historical writings”

[blam]

The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined?

[April Lexington]

Yes, its true! And... it is all Bush’s fault!!!

[Steve Van Doorn]

interesting... this is the event that made Mohammad powerful.
Now we learn that a comet may have triggered the event. how ironic knowing they worship an asteroid.

[count-your-change]

More likely a volcano. Cooler weather favored the spread of the bubonic plague and it struck Constantinople in 540 C.E. killing 300,000 people. So many died that bodies were dumped into the bay.

[Antoninus]

Historical records tell us that from the beginning of March 536 AD, a fog of dust blanketed the atmosphere for 18 months. During this time, "the sun gave no more light than the moon", global temperatures plummeted and crops failed, says Dallas Abbott of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York...

Ah, someone cites my good friend Procopius yet again. For anyone wanting some context, go here:

History of the Wars Books III & IV

Much has been made of Procopius's comments here. I thought the prevailing theory was that a volcano had erupted somewhere (maybe Krakatoa) and caused this phenomenon.

[ThanhPhero]

So the Dark Age really was dark?