1458 mystery eruption

There are two large sulfate spikes caused by mystery volcanic eruptions in the mid-1400s: the 1452/1453 mystery eruption and the 1458 mystery eruption. Before 2012, the date of 1458 sulfate spike was incorrectly assigned to be 1452 because previous ice core work had poor time resolution. The exact location of this eruption is uncertain, but possible candidates include the submerged caldera of Kuwae in the Coral Sea, Mount Reclus and Tofua caldera. The eruption is believed to have been Volcanic Explosivity Index-7.

Date of sulfate spike

This sulfate spike was first discovered in Antarctica ice cores and is one of largest sulfur events along with that of Samalas (1257) and Tambora (1815). Initial efforts to constrain the date of the event concluded that 1452/53 is the year of eruption with uncertainty up to a few years. Since 2012, highly accurate ice core chronology has re-dated this massive sulfur spike to 1458 and has matched with its corresponding Greenland sulfur spike though the latter is significantly smaller.

Ice-core and tree-ring records

The sulfate deposition of this event is the largest recorded in ice cores in the last 700 years. The deposition however is asymmetric with much larger sulfate flux in the Antarctic ice cores compared to that of Greenland ice cores, indicating that the eruption probably occurred in the low latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Sulfur isotope composition of the 1458 sulfate indicates that the eruption emitted volcanic gases directly into the stratosphere, with significant impact on atmospheric chemistry and potential consequence for global climate.