Europe’s lethal Black Death plague could have been triggered by volcanic eruptions
The precise sequence of events that brought the deadly disease to Europe from Central Asia has been debated by boffins for years, now researchers think they have filled in the blanks
The bubonic plague pandemic which killed around 60% of Europe’s population in the middle ages may have been triggered by a volcanic eruption, experts believe.
The Black Death – one of the worst pandemics in human history – ravaged the continent between 1346 and 1353, killing an estimated 50 million people. The precise sequence of events that brought the disease to Europe has been debated for decades.
New research suggests volcanic eruptions caused temperatures to drop for consecutive years due to the haze from volcanic ash and gases, which in turn caused crops to fail across the Mediterranean.
In a bid to avoid famine, Italian city states imported grain from areas around the Black Sea and accidently brought in plague-carrying fleas that carried the disease to Europe as well.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig studied ancient tree rings and found unusually cold and wet summers across much of southern Europe in the years leading up to the plague.
Clues preserved in tree rings suggest the eruption triggered a climate shock and led to a string of events that brought the disease to medieval Europe, boffins say.
Dr Martin Bauch, a historian of medieval climate and epidemiology from GWZO, said: “For more than a century, these powerful Italian city states had established long-distance trade routes across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, allowing them to activate a highly efficient system to prevent starvation. But ultimately, these would inadvertently lead to a far bigger catastrophe.”
The Black Death swept across Europe, killing more than half of the population, and was caused by a bacterium known as Yersinia pestis, which is spread by wild rodents, such as rats and fleas. It is believed to have started in Central Asia and spread around the world through trade.
This “perfect storm” of a climate shock, famine and trade offers a reminder of how diseases can emerge and spread in a globalised and warmer world, scientists say.
Dr Ulf Büntgen of the University of Cambridge said: “Although the coincidence of factors that contributed to the Black Death seems rare, the probability of zoonotic diseases emerging under climate change and translating into pandemics is likely to increase in a globalised world. This is especially relevant given our recent experiences with Covid-19.”
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