50.000 years of recorded global volcanism

Climatic Change 35:, p. 1-15, 1997

C.U. Hammer, H.B. Clausen,
Departement of Geophysics, The Niels Bohr Institute of Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics, University of Copenhagen.
C.C. Langway, Jr.
Ice Core Laboratory, Department of Geology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 4240 Ridge Lea Road, Amherst, NY 14226, USA

ABSTRACT.
The 2191 m long ice core recovered at Byrd Station Antarctica in 1968 (Bs68) was measured continuously by an electrical conductivity method (ECM). The ECM curve inferes the acidity of seasonal ice layers and major peaks, which identify clearly untermediate and prominent past volcanic activity over the last 50.000 years. We here also present recent data for a suite of the most striking volcanic events that occured around 17.5 ka +- 0.5 BP. These events emitted enormous amounts of HCl and HF into the atmosphere.