Los Chocoyos supereruption did not trigger millennial scale cooling

Los Chocoyos supereruption did not trigger millennial scale cooling | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Physical Sciences - Article Los Chocoyos supereruption did not trigger millennial scale cooling Helen Innes, William Hutchison, Micheal Sigl, Laura Crick, Peter Abbott, and 11 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3310024/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Feb, 2025 Read the published version in Communications Earth & Environment → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Stratospheric sulfate aerosols from explosive volcanic eruptions reflect incoming solar radiation and cool the planet, leading to the hypothesis that the largest volcanic events triggered millennial-scale cold periods over the last ice age. Here, we identify tephra shards from the Atitlán Los Chocoyos supereruption (LCY), one of the largest Quaternary eruptions, in ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica (dated at 79.5 ± 1.7 ka), and a marine sediment core (linked to a sea level highstand at 80.5 ± 0.9 ka). The large ice core sulfate peak associated with the tephra results in an estimated stratospheric sulfur injection of 226 ± 48 Tg S (1σ) for LCY, consistent with volcanic-induced cooling on a multi-annual scale. However, the well-constrained timing of LCY within the high-resolution temperature proxy records of ice cores proves it was not a trigger of millennial-scale cooling. Earth and environmental sciences/Natural hazards Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Palaeoclimate Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryData1IceCoreInformation.xlsx Data Set 1 SupplementaryData2TephraEPMA.xlsx Data Set 2 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Feb, 2025 Read the published version in Communications Earth & Environment → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3310024","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Physical Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":237274746,"identity":"705a07ba-eb8f-4bd6-8b5b-91b933ca035e","order_by":0,"name":"Helen Innes","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA20lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACA2b+jw8gzAS4IDMBLQzGBhDVRGthYDCTIE2LOTtDWuXPHwzy5uy5Dx/z/GGQ52/gAdqLB1g2Mxy7zZPAYLiz57mxMW8bg+GMAzzGCfi0GBxmbLvNkPCfccONNDbp3AYGxg0MPMYH8GthZiv8kcBgD9TC/jvnD5BBWAsbGwPQYYkgW5hz2IAMBoIO42GW5kljSN5w5hmz9N82ieQZh9mK8Xrf4PwZxo8/bBhsNxxPY/w444+NbX9782YJfFrQgQShWBkFo2AUjIJRQAwAAKl0QKYkVtEJAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4003-3910","institution":"University of St Andrews","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Helen","middleName":"","lastName":"Innes","suffix":""},{"id":237274747,"identity":"105ed1fc-4f7d-4655-b4f7-89a8a637c086","order_by":1,"name":"William Hutchison","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5456-3277","institution":"University of St Andrews","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"William","middleName":"","lastName":"Hutchison","suffix":""},{"id":237274748,"identity":"8798f1c8-819e-47fd-b39b-8c290f342b09","order_by":2,"name":"Micheal Sigl","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Bern","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Micheal","middleName":"","lastName":"Sigl","suffix":""},{"id":237274749,"identity":"7aea5c62-99fb-4f7b-a897-44756f0a415c","order_by":3,"name":"Laura Crick","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of St Andrews","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Laura","middleName":"","lastName":"Crick","suffix":""},{"id":237274750,"identity":"3ebe6b03-5ba3-4557-9823-23515ded8352","order_by":4,"name":"Peter Abbott","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Bern","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Peter","middleName":"","lastName":"Abbott","suffix":""},{"id":237274751,"identity":"5c52ceb8-fe2e-4daf-b328-f6f2eee7762a","order_by":5,"name":"Matthias Bigler","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0184-4013","institution":"Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute \u0026 Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Matthias","middleName":"","lastName":"Bigler","suffix":""},{"id":237274752,"identity":"217dca6d-6f53-46d6-a684-7b65f07ce444","order_by":6,"name":"Nathan Chellman","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Desert Research Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nathan","middleName":"","lastName":"Chellman","suffix":""},{"id":237274753,"identity":"b270244b-3a10-4e7b-af8f-f55c756b26ef","order_by":7,"name":"Siwan Davies","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Swansea University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Siwan","middleName":"","lastName":"Davies","suffix":""},{"id":237274754,"identity":"57699eca-669e-4def-8606-1921b573d934","order_by":8,"name":"Steffen Kutterolf","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Steffen","middleName":"","lastName":"Kutterolf","suffix":""},{"id":237274755,"identity":"1d3e443a-74fc-43c5-a59f-444cf56d1e95","order_by":9,"name":"Joseph McConnell","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9051-5240","institution":"Desert Research Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Joseph","middleName":"","lastName":"McConnell","suffix":""},{"id":237274756,"identity":"7fd6ae39-940e-4bfb-8b00-e612cd58fd44","order_by":10,"name":"Mirko Severi","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1511-6762","institution":"University of Florence","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mirko","middleName":"","lastName":"Severi","suffix":""},{"id":237274757,"identity":"ba415e8a-1a44-49d6-9c96-c4ee0c777f77","order_by":11,"name":"Stephen Sparks","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7173-2899","institution":"Bristol University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Stephen","middleName":"","lastName":"Sparks","suffix":""},{"id":237274758,"identity":"90d1861b-c001-4918-a03d-364b76377e49","order_by":12,"name":"Anders Svensson","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4364-6085","institution":"University of Copenhagen","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anders","middleName":"","lastName":"Svensson","suffix":""},{"id":237274759,"identity":"65520e29-7660-4c25-af04-25f47ac76d59","order_by":13,"name":"Eric Wolff","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5914-8531","institution":"University of Cambridge","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Eric","middleName":"","lastName":"Wolff","suffix":""},{"id":237274760,"identity":"a8233057-8266-4fe3-9270-670ef8e7c434","order_by":14,"name":"James Rae","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3904-2526","institution":"University of St Andrews","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"James","middleName":"","lastName":"Rae","suffix":""},{"id":237274761,"identity":"020bbe8c-0499-4e5e-8830-00503e3f7507","order_by":15,"name":"Andrea Burke","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3754-1498","institution":"University of St Andrews","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Andrea","middleName":"","lastName":"Burke","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-08-30 11:41:05","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3310024/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3310024/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6","type":"published","date":"2025-02-22T05:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":76951724,"identity":"c718ec9c-3eeb-4f89-9b14-a9d3f78e5eaf","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-02-23 08:07:47","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1810998,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"LCYCombinedFile.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3310024/v1_covered_9925f148-7533-4d82-9c28-259635fef220.pdf"},{"id":50184276,"identity":"816feb96-6d0e-45fb-adb1-e35aecf481ce","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-25 19:51:07","extension":"xlsx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":364321,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eData Set 1\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryData1IceCoreInformation.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3310024/v1/90d0c206e905ba99c1b1766f.xlsx"},{"id":50184275,"identity":"102a8367-88b4-42af-b783-a815223f1336","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-25 19:51:07","extension":"xlsx","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":129838,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eData Set 2\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryData2TephraEPMA.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3310024/v1/cc870048e0491aef87c23f5b.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Los Chocoyos supereruption did not trigger millennial scale cooling","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3310024/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3310024/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Stratospheric sulfate aerosols from explosive volcanic eruptions reflect incoming solar radiation and cool the planet, leading to the hypothesis that the largest volcanic events triggered millennial-scale cold periods over the last ice age. Here, we identify tephra shards from the Atitlán Los Chocoyos supereruption (LCY), one of the largest Quaternary eruptions, in ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica (dated at 79.5 ± 1.7 ka), and a marine sediment core (linked to a sea level highstand at 80.5 ± 0.9 ka). The large ice core sulfate peak associated with the tephra results in an estimated stratospheric sulfur injection of 226 ± 48 Tg S (1σ) for LCY, consistent with volcanic-induced cooling on a multi-annual scale. However, the well-constrained timing of LCY within the high-resolution temperature proxy records of ice cores proves it was not a trigger of millennial-scale cooling.","manuscriptTitle":"Los Chocoyos supereruption did not trigger millennial scale cooling","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-01-25 19:51:02","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3310024/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"communications-earth-and-environment","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"commsenv","sideBox":"Learn more about [Communications Earth and Environment](https://www.nature.com/commsenv/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Communications Earth \u0026 Environment","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Communications Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d618e424-d7aa-484e-b2f3-2d486e1aaa51","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 25th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":25114034,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Natural hazards"},{"id":25114035,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Palaeoclimate"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-02-23T08:07:39+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-3310024","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6","journal":{"identity":"communications-earth-and-environment","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Communications Earth \u0026 Environment"},"publishedOn":"2025-02-22 05:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"February 22nd, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2024-01-25 19:51:02","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02095-6","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-3310024","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-3310024","identity":"rs-3310024","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}