History worth knowing
How volcanoes shaped human history and mythology
17 min
A deep-dive into how volcanic eruptions have acted as the invisible hand of history, toppling empires and birthing gods through climate forcing and cultural trauma.
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Show notes
The Roman Empire flourished during a one hundred thirty year period of unusual volcanic silence.
Sulfuric acid aerosols from eruptions can remain in the stratosphere for over three years.
The eighteen sixteen June snow in New England led to the invention of the first bicycle.
A single eruption in twelve fifty-seven released thirty-three teragrams of sulfur into the atmosphere.
French bread prices soared in seventeen eighty-eight following a volcanic harvest failure.
Modern global food security relies on breadbaskets that are vulnerable to volcanic cooling events.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Invisible Hand of the Stratosphere3 min
- 3The Myth of the Static Climate3 min
- 4The Mechanics of Collapse and Creation3 min
- 5The Fragility of the Modern Breadbasket4 min
- 6The Geological Mirror2 min
- 7Outro1 min
Sources
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- Power and gaze: the human experience of volcanoes across myth, philosophy, literature, and geoethics
- Ancient stories inform modern understanding of volcanic eruptions
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- The selective geography of volcanism in oral traditions | Quaternary Research | Cambridge Core
- A Brief History Of Volcanology: From Myths And Legends To A Modern And Interdisciplinary Science | National Parks Traveler
- This Is When Volcanoes Appeared In Human Stories For The Very First Time
- How 5 Volcanic Eruptions Quietly Rewrote Human History, Culture, and Power
- Cultural and Religious Framing of Eruptions in the Etna Region (Southern Italy): The Implications for Geoheritage | Geoheritage | Springer Nature Link
- Volcano Watch — Legends of Eruptions Past | U.S. Geological Survey
- Climatic and societal impacts of a volcanic double event at the dawn of the Middle Ages
- New ice core evidence for a volcanic cause of the A.D. 536 dust veil
- Volcanic winter of 536
- Volcanic dust veils from sixth century tree-ring isotopes linked to reduced irradiance, primary production and human health | Scientific Reports
- Why Much of the World Went Dark for 18 Months in 536 A.D. | HISTORY
- Disproportionately strong climate forcing from extratropical explosive volcanic eruptions | Nature Geoscience
- ESSD - Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth during the Holocene (past 11 500 years) from a bipolar ice-core array
- High sensitivity of summer temperatures to stratospheric sulfur loading from volcanoes in the Northern Hemisphere
- https://www.climatology.uni-mainz.de/files/2025/06/Buentgen_2025_AREPS.pdf
- Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD | Nature Geoscience
- Sigl, M; Toohey, M (2024): Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections from 500 BCE to 1900 CE, eVolv2k_version4
- Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth from 500 BCE to 1900 CE
- Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections from 500 BCE to 1900 CE, eVolv2k_version4
- Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth from 500 BCE to 1900 CE
- Decadal-to-centennial increases of volcanic aerosols from Iceland challenge the concept of a Medieval Quiet Period | Communications Earth & Environment | Springer Nature Link
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