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In 2009, I completed my Master's in Liberal Studies at Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey, USA. My final thesis/ capstone project dealt with using proxy evidence to locate "unknown" volcanic eruptions. An unknown eruption can be found by looking at ice cores to see volcanic dust embedded in the ice. Usually only stratospheric eruptions would distribute particles that would be found in the ice cores in Greenland, Antartica or alpine cores. By comparing cores from different locations for a certain time period, we can be fairly certain that a volcanic eruption did occur and we can roughly estimate its location. There have been many advancements in our understanding in the past few years, but many gaps in knowledge remain.
Understanding these eruptions is key to understanding climate fluctuations because large stratospheric eruptions, like Mount Pinatubo in 1992, have been shown to cause a decrease in global temperature due to a dimming effect on incoming solar radiation.
How can we locate where these unknown eruptions took place? My thesis is that a new field of study can help to pin-point the locations. It would be an interdisciplinary field that uses history, and documents like manuscripts, many that haven't been translated until recently, so they haven't been combed for evidence of volcanic eruptions. My research found that using ice cores, tree-rings (dendrochronology) and historical sources that there is a strong likelihood that some of these unknown eruptions could be identified as coming from Armenia, Hawaii, and Indonesia.
I also suggest that archaeology be used to extend the time scales to pre-history and finding pottery with volcanic material in it is a great dating mechanism.
Future scholars can work on the specific eruptions with magnetic pot shard dating. I would like to promote improvement in the methods used in this research. The beautiful thing is that anyone can contribute, especially by translating documents.
Wikipedia rejected my submission of the term: archaeovolcanology, a term used in science before my work. They insisted that I was the first to use it, and for that reason they didn't want it for their online encyclopedia. In the link section my paper was summarized by WikiBin editors. I have found several other "archaeovolcanologists" that identify themselves as such in Italy and Russia. I'm interested in hearing from other scholars on this matter, as most archeovolcanologists may call themselves geo-climatologists, paleo-volcanologists or other terms.
My focus has changed in the last few years, since I started my Ph. D at MSU. I'm interested in drought indicators, and especially social indicators and resilience to drought. I would suggest reading Alan Robock's work also (link provided). He is a geo-physics professor at Rutger's University. I hope the field of archaeovolcanology will not be used to dispute climate change or to support geo-engineering, but to give a more truthful history of climate.
