Hekla 3 eruption

The Hekla 3 eruption (H-3) circa 1000 BC is considered the most severe eruption of Hekla during the Holocene. [cite journal |last=Eiríksson |first=Jón |authorlink= |coauthors="et al." |year=2000 |month= |title=Chronology of late Holocene climatic events in the northern North Atlantic based on AMS ¹⁴C dates and tephra markers from the volcano Hekla, Iceland |journal=Journal of Quaternary Science |volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=573-580 |id= |url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/73001062/ABSTRACT |accessdate= |quote= ] It threw about 7.3 km³VNUM|1=1702-07=] of volcanic rock into the atmosphere, placing its Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) at 5. This would have cooled temperatures in the northern parts of the globe for a few years afterwards.

An eighteen-year span of climate worsening is recorded in Irish bog oaks, and H-3 was blamed for it. [cite journal |last=Baillie |first=Mike |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1989 |month= |title=Hekla 3: how big was it? |journal=Endeavour. New series |volume=13 |issue= |pages=78-81 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote= ] [cite journal |last=Baillie |first=Mike |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1989 |month= |title=Do Irish bog oaks date the Shang dynasty? |journal=Current archaeology |volume=10 |issue= |pages=310-313 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote= ]

The eruption is detectable through Greenland ice-cores, the bristlecone pine sequence, and the Irish oak sequence of extremely narrow growth rings. Baker's team dated it to 1021 + 130/-100 BC. [cite journal |last=Baker |first=Andy |authorlink= |coauthors="et al." |year=1995 |month= |title=The Hekla 3 volcanic eruption recorded in a Scottish speleothem? |journal=The Holocene |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=336-342 |doi=10.1177/095968369500500309 |url= |accessdate= |quote= ]

Baker preferred a "high chronology" (earlier) interpretation of these results. In Sutherland, northwest Scotland, a spurt of four years of doubled annual luminescent growth banding of calcite in a stalagmite datable to 1135 ± 130 BC. [Dated by uranium-thorium thermal ionization mass spectrometry to 1135 ± 130 BC in cite journal |last=Baker |first=Andy |authorlink= |coauthors="et al." |year=1995 |month= |title=The Hekla 3 volcanic eruption recorded in a Scottish speleothem? |journal=The Holocene |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=336-342 |doi=10.1177/095968369500500309 |url= |accessdate= |quote= ] A rival, "low-chronology" interpretation of the eruption comes from Dugmore, 2879 BP = 929 BC ± 34. [cite journal |last=Dugmore |first=AJ |authorlink= |coauthors=G. T. Cook, J. S. Shore, A. J. Newton, K. J. Edwards and Gu�r�n Larsen |year=1995 |month= |title=Radiocarbon Dating Tephra Layers in Britain and Iceland |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=37 |issue=2 |url=http://www.radiocarbon.org/Journal/v37n2/Abstracts/379.html |accessdate= |quote= ]

In 1999 Dugmore suggested a non-volcanic explanation for the Scottish results. [Andrew Dugmore, Geriant Coles, Paul Buckland, "A Scottish speleothem record of the H-3 eruption or human impact? A comment on Baker, Smart, Barnes, Edwards and Farrant" "The Holocene" 9.4 501-503 (1999).] In 2000 skepticism concerning conclusions about connecting Hekla 3 and Hekla 4 eruptions with paleoenvironmental events and archaeologically attested abandonment of settlement sites in northern Scotland was expressed by John P. Grattan and David D. Gilbertson. [cite book |chapter=Prehistoric 'settlement crisis', environmental changes in the British Isles, and volcanic eruptions in Iceland: An explorarion of plausible linkages |title=Volcanic Hazards and Disasters in Human Antiquity |last=Grattan |first= |authorlink= |coauthors=Gilbertson |editor=McCoy, Floyd W.; Heiken, Grant (eds.) |year=2000 |series=GSA Special Paper |volume=345 |publisher=Geological Society of America |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=0813723450 |pages= ]

Some Egyptologists in 1999 firmly dated the eruption to 1159 BC and blamed it for famines under Ramesses III during the Bronze Age collapse. [cite book |chapter=End of the Late Bronze Age and Other Crisis Periods: A Volcanic Cause |title=Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente |last=Yurco |first=Frank J. |authorlink= |editor=Teeter, Emily; Larson, John (eds.) |year=1999 |series=Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization |volume=58 |publisher=Oriental Institute of the Univ. of Chicago |location=Chicago, IL |isbn=1885923090 |pages=456–458 ] Dugmore dismissed this and maintains his dating to this day. [ [http://sp.lyellcollection.org/cgi/content/abstract/242/1/145 Late Holocene solifluction history reconstructed using tephrochronology] , Martin P. Kirkbride & Andrew J. Dugmore, Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2005; v. 242; p. 145-155.] Other scholars have held off on this dispute, preferring the neutral and vague "3000 BP". [ [http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/inqu/finalprogram/abstract_54866.htm TOWARDS A HOLOCENE TEPHROCHRONOLOGY FOR SWEDEN] , Stefan WastegÅrd, XVI INQUA Congress, Paper No. 41-13, Saturday, July 26, 2003.]

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