EGU Media

Old Paintings and Volcanic Activity

Thursday, 27 September 2007

Old Paintings tell a Story of Volcanic Activity

A team of Greek scientists, led by Professor Christos Zerefos, found an imaginative way to reconstruct past volcanic activity, using paintings by famous old masters. Major volcanic eruptions are usually followed by periods of beautiful sunsets worldwide, which may last several years. This is caused by high concentrations of fine volcanic dust particles in the atmosphere. Using this idea they thoroughly analysed the colours of hundreds of sunset paintings from the period 1500-1900. Spectacular sunsets painted by artists such as Turner, Degas, Lorrain and Klimt could be correlated to eruptions of e.g. Katla (Iceland-1660), Tambora (Indonesia-1815), Coseguina (Nicaragua-1835), and Krakatau (Indonesia-1680, 1883).

Zerefos et al. analysed the red-to-green ratio in paintings of sunsets from four centuries. They showed that this ratio is particularly high after major volcanic eruptions. Based on radiative transfer simulations they estimated the aerosol optical depths (AOD) and compared their results with another volcanic index, the dust veil index (DVI).

This way the Greek team was able to extend the history of volcanic activity to periods when instruments to measure atmospheric dust concentration were not yet available. Even more important: the sunset paintings tell us which periods were cooler than normal, because high amounts of volcanic dust in the atmosphere tend to cool the Earth. Thus, the Greek researchers produce a story of the natural variability of the climate over the last five hundred years – the background for recent human-made climate change.

Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings
C. S. Zerefos, V. T. Gerogiannis, D. Balis, S. C. Zerefos, A. Kazantzidis
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 7, 5145-5172, 2007

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contact: Prof. Christos Zerefos can be reached This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or +306944570099 (mobile).