[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.

[Steve Van Doorn]

"bubonic plague and it struck Constantinople in 540 C.E. killing 300,000 people."

there were around 500K there at the time.
must of been scary times

[Antoninus]

Cooler weather favored the spread of the bubonic plague and it struck Constantinople in 540 C.E. killing 300,000 people.

AD 542, actually.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

it struck Constantinople in 540 C.E. killing 300,000 people

It hit the entire Mediterranean basin, killing nearly half of the population, just during the period Justinian was trying to rebuild the old Empire. The effects were described in the recent book Justinian's Flea. Without it the Roman Empire might have been rebuilt and there likely would never have been a Muslim Conquest. Persia would still be Zoroastrian, Pakistan and Indonesia would still be all Hindu and Buddhist, the history of Western Europe would have been transformed beyond any recognition.

[freepersup]

Whenever one of these extraterrestial object impact stories surfaces, I am reminded of the amount of ash and gas put forth into the atmosphere by a single volcanic eruption; namely one Mount Pinatubo.

excerpt: START

In addition to the ash, Mount Pinatubo ejected between 15 and 30 million tons of sulfur dioxide gas. Sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere mixes with water and oxygen in the atmosphere to become sulfuric acid, which in turn triggers ozone depletion. Over 90% of the material released from the volcano was ejected during the nine hour eruption of June 15.

The eruption plume of Mount Pinatubo's various gases and ash reached high into the atmosphere within two hours of the eruption, attaining an altitude of 34 km (21 miles) high and over 400 km (250 miles) wide. This eruption was the largest disturbance of the stratosphere since the eruption of Krakatau in 1883 (but ten times larger than Mount St. Helens in 1980). The aerosol cloud spread around the earth in two weeks and covered the planet within a year. During 1992 and 1993, the Ozone hole over Antarctica reached an unprecedented size.

The cloud over the earth reduced global temperatures. In 1992 and 1993, the average temperature in the Northern Hemisphere was reduced 0.5 to 0.6°C and the entire planet was cooled 0.4 to 0.5°C. The maximum reduction in global temperature occurred in August 1992 with a reduction of 0.73°C. The eruption is believed to have influenced such events as 1993 floods along the Mississippi river and the drought in the Sahel region of Africa. The United States experienced its third coldest and third wettest summer in 77 years during 1992.

Overall, the cooling effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption were greater than those of the El Niño that was taking place at the time or of the greenhouse gas warming of the planet. Remarkable sunrises and sunsets were visible around the globe in the years following the Mount Pinatubo eruption.

excerpt: STOP

Imagine a second eruption occurring at the same time on earth... imagine dozens of eruptions occurring at the same time, over hundreds if not thousands of years... hmmm.

I do not dispute the fact that the earth has been struck by extraterrestial objects from time to time. I think that the more likely, yet less dramatic source for cataclysmic weather phenomenons are volcanic eruptions.

http://geography.about.com/od/globalproblemsandissues/a/pinatubo.htm