2021/10/23 by Qingyuan Yang, Susanna F. Jenkins, Geoffrey A. Lerner +8 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Climate variability and models #Geological and Geochemical Analysis #Tree-ring climate responses
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s00445-021-01487-8
openalex publication_date 2021/10/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract The Millennium Eruption (AD 946–947) of Changbaishan Tianchi Volcano is one of the largest known eruptions in recorded history. With the help of previously published isopachs and distal ash thicknesses, we re-calculate the bulk volume of its distal eruptive product, the B-Tm ash, as 27–62 km 3 and the total eruption volume as 40–98 km 3 . The updated volume estimates are around half of those estimated by previous studies of this seminal eruption. Our work shows that the Millennium Eruption is a VEI-6 eruption, rather than VEI-7 as previously envisaged, and its magnitude is also lower than previously thought. This has implications for regional frequency-magnitude relationships and may also partially explain the limited regional, rather than global, climatic effects of the Millennium Eruption.