Laki

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For other uses, see Laki (disambiguation).

Laki

Elevation
Coordinates

Highest point
Varies: canyon to 1,725 metres (5,659 ft)
640353N 181334WCoordinates:
640353N 181334W
Geography

Laki

Iceland
Geology
Mountain type Fissure vents
Last eruption 1784
Laki or Lakaggar (Craters of Laki) is a volcanic fissure in the south of Iceland, not far from the
canyon of Eldgj and the small village of Kirkjubjarklaustur. Lakaggar is the correct name, as
Laki mountain itself did not erupt, as fissures opened up on each side of it. Lakaggar is part of a
volcanic system centered on the Grmsvtn volcano and including the rarhyrna volcano.[1][2][3]
It lies between the glaciers of Mrdalsjkull and Vatnajkull, in an area of fissures that run in a
southwest to northeast direction.

The system erupted over an eight-month period between 1783 and 1784 from the Laki fissure
and the adjoining Grmsvtn volcano, pouring out an estimated 14 km3 (3.4 cu mi) of basalt lava
and clouds of poisonous hydrofluoric acid and sulfur dioxide compounds that killed over 50% of
Iceland's livestock population, leading to a famine which then killed approximately 25% of the
island's human population.[4]
The Laki eruption and its aftermath caused a drop in global temperatures, as sulfur dioxide was
spewed into the Northern Hemisphere. This caused crop failures in Europe and may have caused
droughts in India. The eruption has been estimated to have killed over six million people
globally,[5] making it the deadliest in historical times.

Contents

1 1783 eruption
o 1.1 Consequences in Iceland
o 1.2 Consequences in monsoon regions
o 1.3 Consequences in Europe
o 1.4 Consequences in North America
o 1.5 Contemporary reports

2 See also

3 References

4 Further reading

5 External links

1783 eruption
On 8 June 1783, a fissure with 130 craters opened with phreatomagmatic explosions because of
the groundwater interacting with the rising basalt magma. Over a few days the eruptions became
less explosive, Strombolian, and later Hawaiian in character, with high rates of lava effusion.
This event is rated as 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, but the eight-month emission of
sulfuric aerosols resulted in one of the most important climatic and socially repercussive events
of the last millennium.[6][7]
The eruption, also known as the Skaftreldar ("Skaft fires") or Sueldur, produced an estimated
14 km3 (3.4 cu mi) of basalt lava, and the total volume of tephra emitted was 0.91 km3

(0.2 cu mi).[8] Lava fountains were estimated to have reached heights of 800 to 1,400 m (2,600 to
4,600 ft). The gases were carried by the convective eruption column to altitudes of about 15 km
(10 mi).[9]
The eruption continued until 7 February 1784, but most of the lava was ejected in the first five
months. Grmsvtn volcano, from which the Laki fissure extends, was also erupting at the time,
from 1783 until 1785. The outpouring of gases, including an estimated 8 million tons of
hydrogen fluoride and an estimated 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide, gave rise to what has
since become known as the "Laki haze" across Europe.[9]

Consequences in Iceland
The consequences for Iceland, known as the "Muharindin" (Mist Hardships), were
catastrophic.[10] An estimated 2025% of the population died in the famine and fluoride
poisoning after the fissure eruptions ensued. Around 80% of sheep, 50% of cattle and 50% of
horses died because of dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis from the 8 million tons of hydrogen
fluoride that were released.[11][12]
The parish priest and dean of Vestur-Skaftafellsssla, Jn Steingrmsson (17281791), grew
famous because of the eldmessa ("fire sermon") that he delivered on 20 July 1783. The people of
the small settlement of Kirkjubjarklaustur were worshipping while the village was endangered
by a lava stream, which ceased to flow not far from town, with the townsfolk still in church.
"This past week, and the two prior to it, more poison fell from the sky than words can
describe: ash, volcanic hairs, rain full of sulfur and saltpeter, all of it mixed with sand.
The snouts, nostrils, and feet of livestock grazing or walking on the grass turned bright
yellow and raw. All water went tepid and light blue in color and gravel slides turned gray.
All the earth's plants burned, withered and turned gray, one after another, as the fire
increased and neared the settlements."[13]

Center of the Laki Fissure

Consequences in monsoon regions

There is evidence that the Laki eruption weakened African and Indian monsoon circulations,
leading to between 1 and 3 millimetres (0.04 and 0.12 in) less daily precipitation than normal
over the Sahel of Africa, resulting in, among other effects, low flow in the River Nile.[14] The
resulting famine that afflicted Egypt in 1784 cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.[14][15] The
eruption was also found to have affected the southern Arabian Peninsula and India.[15]

Consequences in Europe
An estimated 120,000,000 long tons (120,000,000 t) of sulphur dioxide was emitted, about three
times the total annual European industrial output in 2006 (but delivered to higher altitudes, hence
more persistent), and equivalent to six times the total 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.[11][16] This
outpouring of sulphur dioxide during unusual weather conditions caused a thick haze to spread
across western Europe, resulting in many thousands of deaths throughout the remainder of 1783
and the winter of 1784.
The summer of 1783 was the hottest on record and a rare high-pressure zone over Iceland caused
the winds to blow to the south-east.[11] The poisonous cloud drifted to Bergen in Denmark
Norway, then spread to Prague in the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) by 17
June, Berlin by 18 June, Paris by 20 June, Le Havre by 22 June, and Great Britain by 23 June.
The fog was so thick that boats stayed in port, unable to navigate, and the sun was described as
"blood coloured".[11]
Inhaling sulphur dioxide gas causes victims to choke as their internal soft tissue swells the gas
reacts with the moisture in lungs and produces sulfurous acid.[17] The local death rate in Chartres
was up by 5% during August and September, with more than 40 dead. In Great Britain, the
records show that the additional deaths were among outdoor workers; the death rate in
Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and the east coast was perhaps two or three times the normal rate. It
has been estimated that 23,000 British people died from the poisoning.[18]
The weather became very hot, causing severe thunderstorms with large hailstones that were
reported to have killed cattle,[19] until the haze dissipated in the autumn. The winter of 1783/1784
was very severe;[20] the naturalist Gilbert White in Selborne, Hampshire, reported 28 days of
continuous frost. The extreme winter is estimated to have caused 8,000 additional deaths in the
UK. During the spring thaw, Germany and Central Europe reported severe flood damage.[11]
The meteorological impact of Laki continued, contributing significantly to several years of
extreme weather in Europe. In France, the sequence of extreme weather events included a
surplus harvest in 1785 that caused poverty for rural workers, as well as droughts, bad winters
and summers. These events contributed significantly to an increase in poverty and famine that
may have contributed to the French Revolution in 1789.[21] Laki was only one factor in a decade
of climatic disruption, as Grmsvtn was erupting from 1783 to 1785, and there may have been
an unusually strong El Nio effect from 1789 to 1793.[22]

Consequences in North America

In North America, the winter of 1784 was the longest and one of the coldest on record. It was the
longest period of below-zero temperatures in New England, with the largest accumulation of
snow in New Jersey, and the longest freezing over of the Chesapeake Bay, where Annapolis,
Maryland, then the capital of the United States, is located; the weather delayed Congressmen in
coming to Annapolis to vote for the Treaty of Paris, which would end the American
Revolutionary War. A huge snowstorm hit the south, the Mississippi River froze at New Orleans
and there was ice in the Gulf of Mexico.[21][23]

Contemporary reports
Gilbert White recorded his perceptions of the event at Selborne, Hampshire, England:
The summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous one, and full of horrible
phaenomena; for besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder-storms that
affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze, or
smokey fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe,
and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike anything known
within the memory of man. By my journal I find that I had noticed this strange
occurrence from June 23 to July 20 inclusive, during which period the wind varied to
every quarter without making any alteration in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as blank
as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors
of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. All the time
the heat was so intense that butchers' meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was
killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they rendered the horses half
frantic, and riding irksome. The country people began to look, with a superstitious awe, at
the red, louring aspect of the sun; [...][24]
Benjamin Franklin recorded his observations in a 1784 lecture:
During several of the summer months of the year 1783, when the effect of the sun's rays
to heat the earth in these northern regions should have been greater, there existed a
constant fog over all Europe, and a great part of North America. This fog was of a
permanent nature; it was dry, and the rays of the sun seemed to have little effect towards
dissipating it, as they easily do a moist fog, arising from water. They were indeed
rendered so faint in passing through it, that when collected in the focus of a burning glass
they would scarce kindle brown paper. Of course, their summer effect in heating the
Earth was exceedingly diminished. Hence the surface was early frozen. Hence the first
snows remained on it unmelted, and received continual additions. Hence the air was more
chilled, and the winds more severely cold. Hence perhaps the winter of 17834 was more
severe than any that had happened for many years.
The cause of this universal fog is not yet ascertained [...] or whether it was the vast
quantity of smoke, long continuing, to issue during the summer from Hekla in Iceland,
and that other volcano which arose out of the sea near that island, which smoke might be
spread by various winds, over the northern part of the world, is yet uncertain.[25]
(According to contemporary records, Hekla did not erupt in 1783; its previous eruption
was in 1766. The Laki fissure eruption was 45 miles (72 km) to the east and the
Grmsvtn volcano was erupting about 75 miles (121 km) north east. Additionally Katla,
only 31 miles (50 km) south east, was still renowned after its spectacular eruption 28
years earlier in 1755.)
Sir John Cullum of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, recorded his observations on 23 June
1783 (the same date on which Gilbert White noted the onset of the unusual atmospheric
phenomena), in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, then President of the Royal Society

...about six oclock, that morning, I observed the air very much condensed in my
chamber-window; and, upon getting up, was informed by a tenant that finding himself
cold in bed, about three oclock in the morning, he looked out at his window, and to his
great surprise saw the ground covered with a white frost: and I was assured that two men
at Barton, about 3 miles (4.8 km) off, saw in some shallow tubs, ice of the thickness of a
crown-piece.[26]
Sir John goes on to describe the effect of this frost on trees and crops:
The aristae of the barley, which was coming into ear, became brown and withered at
their extremities, as did the leaves of the oats; the rye had the appearance of being
mildewed; so that the farmers were alarmed for those cropsThe larch, Weymouth pine,
and hardy Scotch fir, had the tips of their leaves withered.[26]