The generally accepted year of the Fall of Imperial Rome is 476 AD. It had collapsed mostly from external pressures and corruption within. Emperor Justinian (ca. 527-565) was attempting to rebuild the Roman Empire when these events happened. He actually was having moderate success when these two calamities occurred. Some think that he wouldn’t have succeeded in any event, but the two happening so close together can’t be ignored. He died in 565 and within 100 yrs. the spread of Islam ended any likelihood of an empire being rebuilt.
Blaming it on this volcano or that volcano ignores the huge hot object in our sky that keeps our planet warm.
If we didn’t have the particular atmospheric concoction we have, this planet would resemble Mars. We also have something Mars doesn’t, the Van Allen Belts. Which, curiously, are the result of the dynamo generated by the molten core of the earth which is the source of the energy system that makes plate tectonics possible which is the source of volcanoes which periodically cause mass extinctions. See
The Big Five Mass Extinctions. I point you specifically to the Permian Extinction of 251 mya, which is attributed to the Siberian Traps event nearly 200 mya.
In 1991 Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. It charged the atmosphere with enormous volumes of sulfur dioxide and dropped the worldwide temperatures 1º. Almost 10 km^3 of material came out of the volcano. The Proto-Krakatou event is estimated at 200 km^3. With a 1º drop with 10 km^3, how much would 20 times that much cause?
The geologic record in the Indonesian Islands shows a massive event in the 6th century. A possibility exists that the
Dark Ages were triggered by this eruption. Too much sun can kill just like
too little can.
Most probably its the sun that causes it all and none of the scapegoats have ever been responsible for any of it.
The Van Allen belts protect us from that big hot object in the sky and prevents the solar wind from stripping the atmosphere from the planet. Astronomers will tell you that as a star gets older, it gets hotter and more active. Our sun is getting hotter. This is normal. Sunspot activity is one way they monitor solar activity. There was a drop in spot activity late in the 17th century, right at the end of the Little Ice Age, called
The Maunder Minimum, the coldest period of that icy event.
The reason I mention all of this is because we were speaking of how one thing in the environment, and in this case culture, leads to another. There is seldom a singular cause. It was a barrage of things that culminated in a catastrophe. Those that search for a single cause seldom find one. Usually, over time, many causes are discovered.
I try to stick to the science sites, but sometimes the personal opinions of other enthusiasts can be fun to read and every now and then a nugget is discovered. But I generally don't use them as sources. The science is backed by hard data.
For me, this is something I enjoy doing. Looking for connections.
Duane
