Scots researchers solve mystery of giant volcanic eruption that has baffled scientists for 200 years

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scots scientists have solved the mystery of a colossal volcanic eruption that has baffled boffins for nearly 200 years. The seismic eruption in 1831 released vast amounts of sulphurous gases into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to drop by around 1C, leading to widespread crop failures and famines.Despite its impact, the volcano responsible for what is known as Earth's most recent "mystery eruption" had eluded identification - until now.

Researchers from the University of St Andrews have finally pinpointed the location of the huge blast.Dr Will Hutchison and his team analysed ice core records from the eruption as part of the study.

They managed to identify a "perfect fingerprint match" of the ash deposits, finally solving the long-standing enigma."The moment in the lab when we analysed the two ashes together, one from the volcano and one from the ice core, was a genuine eureka moment," Dr Hutchison gushed. "I couldn’t believe the numbers were identical."Only in recent years have we developed the ability to extract microscopic ash shards from polar ice cores and conduct detailed chemical analyses on them.

These shards are incredibly minute, roughly one-tenth the diameter of a human hair."The team led by Dr Hutchison was able to accurately date and match the ice core deposits to Zavaritskii volcano on the remote, uninhabited island of Simushir, part of the Kuril Islands, a disputed territory between Russia and Japan.