Articles | Volume 17, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2607-2021
Research article
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20 Dec 2021
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 20 Dec 2021

The blue suns of 1831: was the eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily, one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century?

Christopher Garrison, Christopher Kilburn, David Smart, and Stephen Edwards

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Cited articles

Alexandria Gazette: “Meteorological Observations Taken at the Alexandria Museum, Aug. 1831, Friday, 2 September”, p. 1, 1831a. 
Alexandria Gazette: “The sun on Saturday evening…”, Thursday, 18 August, p.1, 1831b. 
Allgemeine Zeitung München: “Spanien, Madrid, 18 Aug…”, Samstag, 3 September, No. 246, p. 981, 1831a. 
Allgemeine Zeitung München: “Pesth, 12 Aug…”, Montag, 22 August, No. 234, p. 936, 1831b. 
Arago, F.: Communication to the 22 August 1831 meeting of the Académie des Sciences, in: Journal de Chimie Médicale, de Pharmacie et de Toxicologie, Tome VII, Chez Béchet Jeune, Paris, 1831. 
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Short summary
An unidentified eruption in 1831 was one of the largest volcanic climate forcing events of the nineteenth century. We use reported observations of a blue sun to reconstruct the transport of an aerosol plume from that eruption and, hence, identify it as the 1831 eruption of Ferdinandea, near Sicily. We propose that, although it was only a modest eruption, its volcanic plume was enriched with sulfur from sedimentary deposits and that meteorological conditions helped it reach the stratosphere.