When pondering the worst time to be alive, many would instinctively point to the COVID-19 pandemic. While it’s true that the pandemic brought unprecedented challenges and devastation, history reveals far worse periods. But which era stands out as the most dire? Surprisingly, it is not the Black Death of 1349, which ravaged Europe, nor the 1918 flu pandemic that claimed 50-100 million lives. Instead, the answer lies in the year 536.
In 536, a bizarre and ominous fog swept across Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, plunging the world into an eerie darkness that lasted for 18 months. This was no ordinary fog; it obscured the sun during the day, causing temperatures to plummet, crops to fail, and death tolls to rise, according to History.com. It was the actual Dark Age.
Researchers discovered that a volcanic eruption was the primary cause of the fog. According to a 2018 article published in the journal Antiquity, the fog was caused by ash that was dispersed throughout the Northern Hemisphere by an Icelandic volcanic eruption that occurred in early 536. Similar to the most deadly volcanic explosion ever recorded, Mount Tambora in 1815, this eruption was large enough to change the patterns of the world’s climate, resulting in years of starvation.
The Byzantine historian Procopius recorded that “the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year” in History of the Wars, Books III and IV. In addition, he noted that it appeared as though the sun was always in eclipse and that “men were free neither from war nor pestilence nor any other thing leading to death” during this period.
Ever since the 1990s, when tree ring investigations revealed that the summers of the year 540 were abnormally cold, scientists have been trying to figure out reasons. A hint was discovered three years ago in polar ice cores recovered from Greenland and Antarctica.
A volcano’s eruption sends particles high into the atmosphere, including sulphur and bismuth, which combine to produce an aerosol veil reflecting solar radiation into space, cooling the earth.
Using tree ring records of temperature and the ice record of these chemical residues, a team led by Michael Sigl (now at the University of Bern) discovered, according to Science.org, that almost every exceptionally cold summer during the previous 2500 years had been preceded by a volcanic eruption.
The researchers proposed that a large eruption occurred in late 535 or early 536, perhaps in North America. Another eruption occurred in 540.
The twin strike, according to Sigl’s scientists, explains the extended darkness and cold.
Asia and Europe saw 35–37°F cooler summers; China even experienced summer snowfall. The sun was obscured by volcanic ash, resulting in the known Late Antique Little Ice Age.
According to Science.org, co-author of the Antiquity research and Harvard University history professor Michael McCormick said, “It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.”
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