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Home > Climate changes of 535-536

In the years 535 and 536, several remarkable aberrations in world climate took place. The Byzantine historian Procopius recorded of 536 CE, "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness ... and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear." Tree ring analysis by dendrochronologist Mike Baillie, Queens University, Belfast, shows abnormally little growth in Irish oak in 536 and another sharp drop in 542, after a partial recovery. Similar patterns are recorded in tree rings from Sweden and Finland, in California's Sierra Nevada and in rings from Chilean Fitzroyia trees.

Further phenomena reported by a number of independent contemporary sources:

It has been conjectured that these changes were due to ashes or dust thrown into the air after the impact of a comet or meteorite, or after the eruption of a volcano, a phenomenon being called a " volcanic winter".

A similar, lesser episode of climatic aberration had been observed in 1816, popularly known as the Year Without A Summer, which has been connected to the explosion of the volcano Tambora in Sumatra.

In a 1999 book, David Keys, supported by work of the American volcanologist Ken Wohletz, suggested that the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded at the time and caused the changes. He further speculated that the climate changes may have contributed to various developments, such as the emergence of bubonic plague, the migration of MongoliaAlternative meaning: Mongolia (region Mongolia ( Khalkha Mongolian: is a landlocked country in Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south. After the conquest of China by the Mongol Empire, much of Mongolia was run tribes towards the West, the end of the Persian empire, the rise of IslamCairo Egypt Islm (In Arabic: , "submission (to God)"; In Persian and Urdu: ) is a monotheistic faith and the world's second-largest religion. Followers of Islam, known as Muslims believe that God (or, in Arabic, Allh revealed His Will to Muhammad (c. and the end of various civilizations in Central and South America. PBS based a documentary, Catastrophe!, on Keys and Wohletz' ideas. These ideas are not widely accepted at this point.

Further Reading

Climate changeThe term climate change is used to refer to changes in the Earth's climate. In the most general sense, it can be taken to mean changes over all timescales and in all of the components of climate, including precipitation and clouds as well as temperature. History of climate


530sCenturies: 5th century 6th century 7th century Decades: 480s 490s 500s 510s 520s 530s 540s 550s 560s 570s 580s Years: 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 Events and Trends Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, built (532-537) General Belisarius defeats th

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Topics: Climate Changes Of 535-536, Climate Change, Climate Model...

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