Comment by throwaway2037

19 hours ago

    > The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals. One began about 1650, another about 1770, and the last in 1850

Are these due to volcanic eruptions?

2 comments

throwaway2037

thaumasiotes 18 hours ago

Why do you ask? I'm not familiar with any such theory. Krakatoa erupted in... 1883, which doesn't seem like a good match. And volcanic winters don't seem to last much more than 10 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter#Past_volcanic_...

There is a theory that the Little Ice Age was precipitated by the reforestation of land in America as the natives died off from exposure to European diseases. And of course, there's always the theory that it's just something that happened.

throwaway2037 9 hours ago

I didn't realize that the original quote (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

More from that same page:

    > Several causes have been proposed: cyclical lows in solar radiation, heightened volcanic activity, changes in the ocean circulation, variations in Earth's orbit and axial tilt (orbital forcing), inherent variability in global climate, and decreases in the human population (such as from the massacres by Genghis Khan, the Black Death and the epidemics emerging in the Americas upon European contact).