Our group has been awarded funding from the University of Minnesota's Office of the Vice President for Research to create a global atlas of frost events recorded by trees.
This award will allow us to create a global atlas of frost events that spans the past two millennia so we can understand how major volcanic erup$ons during this period have affected Earth’s climate. We're excited because this project should allow us to better interpret frost rings as signs of past climate change, provide a new way to estimate cooling caused by volcanic eruptions, and lay the foundation for a global study to test the suggestion that the Norse legend of Fimbulvinter was inspired by a real event.
One way of the other, 2021 is going to be chilly!
Hunting Fimbulvinter: Drafting a Global Atlas of Dreadful Frosts Over the Past Two Millennia
In Old Norse mythology the twilight of the gods is preceded by the Fimbulvinter — three straight years of uninterrupted awful cold weather. Some archeologists and Earth scientists have suggested this myth could have been inspired by a real 6th century catastrophe. Two massive volcanic eruptions — the first in CE 535/536 and the second in 539/540 — may have triggered widespread crop failures and famine. But our existing library of surrogate weather records is not accurate enough to gage the impact of this sudden geological shock. Our group will create a global atlas of frost events recorded by trees so we can understand how major volcanic eruptions during the past two millennia have affected Earth’s climate. When trees are exposed to sub-zero conditions during the growing season, their wood can be damaged permanently to form a ‘frost ring’ — an annual ring with deformed cells and scar tissue. This synthesis will allow us to better interpret frost rings as signs of past climate change, provide a new way to estimate cooling caused by volcanic eruptions, and lay the foundation for a global study to test the suggestion that the legend of Fimbulvinter was inspired by a real event.
