Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The 1257 CE eruption of Mount Samalas (Indonesia) caused the largest stratospheric sulfur injection of the Common Era, as recorded by Greenland and Antarctic ice cores, and led to strong climate perturbations. About 80% of the eruption’s sulfur output likely came from vapor stored in the magma reservoir. However, the factors that controlled prodigious excess sulfur buildup at Samalas remain enigmatic. To address this problem, we analyzed sulfur and iron speciation, along with sulfur isotopes, in plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions and matrix glasses from 1257 pumice samples, and we modeled magma reservoir processes. Our results indicate that intermediate redox conditions, with sulfur as both sulfate and sulfide, and progressive magma recharge maximized pre-eruptive sulfur accumulation at Samalas. Redox-controlled sulfur speciation in the magma and magma reservoir growth via incremental recharge may thus modulate the sulfur emissions and climate impacts of large explosive volcanic eruptions. Redox-driven sulfur speciation and incremental magma recharge modulate the sulfur emissions and climate impacts of large explosive eruptions, according to investigation of 1257 CE Mount Samalas eruption’s sulfur budget.
Source: Nature Communications
Institutions: Queens College, CUNY, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, City University of New York, University of Florida, Columbia University, The Graduate Center, CUNY, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Southern Methodist University, University of Cambridge, Institut de physique du globe de Paris, Université Paris Diderot, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Language: English
Subfield: Geophysics
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,990
OpenAlex ID: W4415359641