Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
PLoS One. 2013 Jun 17;8(6):e65839. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065839. Print 2013.
The Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) volcanic eruption was the most explosive in Europe in the last 200,000 years. The event coincided with the onset of an extremely cold climatic phase known as Heinrich Event 4 (HE4) approximately 40,000 years ago. Their combined effect may have exacerbated the severity of the climate through positive feedbacks across Europe and possibly globally. The CI event is of particular interest not only to investigate the role of volcanism on climate forcing and palaeoenvironments, but also because its timing coincides with the arrival into Europe of anatomically modern humans, the demise of Neanderthals, and an associated major shift in lithic technology. At this stage, however, the degree of interaction between these factors is poorly known, based on fragmentary and widely dispersed data points. In this study we provide important new data from Eastern Europe which indicate that the magnitude of the CI eruption and impact of associated distal ash (tephra) deposits may have been substantially greater than existing models suggest. The scale of the eruption is modelled by tephra distribution and thickness, supported by local data points. CI ashfall extends as far as the Russian Plain, Eastern Mediterranean and northern Africa. However, modelling input is limited by very few data points in Eastern Europe. Here we investigate an unexpectedly thick CI tephra deposit in the southeast Romanian loess steppe, positively identified using geochemical and geochronological analyses. We establish the tephra as a widespread primary deposit, which blanketed the topography both thickly and rapidly, with potentially catastrophic impacts on local ecosystems. Our discovery not only highlights the need to reassess models for the magnitude of the eruption and its role in climatic transition, but also suggests that it may have substantially influenced hominin population and subsistence dynamics in a region strategic for human migration into Europe.
坎帕尼安火山灰（CI）喷发是过去 20 万年来欧洲最具爆炸性的一次。大约 4 万年前，该事件与被称为海因里希事件 4（HE4）的极冷气候阶段同时发生。它们的共同作用可能通过在整个欧洲乃至全球的正反馈加剧了气候的严峻程度。CI 事件不仅因其对气候强迫和古环境的影响而引起关注，还因其时间与解剖学上现代人类进入欧洲、尼安德特人灭绝以及与之相关的石器技术的重大转变相吻合。然而，基于零散且广泛分散的数据点，这些因素之间相互作用的程度还知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们提供了来自东欧的重要新数据，表明 CI 喷发的规模和相关远程火山灰（火山碎屑）沉积的影响可能比现有模型所表明的要大得多。喷发的规模通过火山灰分布和厚度进行模拟，并得到了当地数据点的支持。CI 火山灰沉降远至俄罗斯平原、东地中海和北非。然而，由于东欧的数据点非常有限，模型输入受到限制。在这里，我们研究了罗马尼亚东南部黄土草原中一个出乎意料的厚 CI 火山灰沉积，通过地球化学和年代学分析得到了明确的证实。我们确定该火山灰为广泛的原生沉积，其快速且厚厚地覆盖了地形，对当地生态系统可能产生了灾难性的影响。我们的发现不仅强调了需要重新评估喷发规模及其在气候转变中的作用的模型，还表明它可能对人类向欧洲迁移的关键地区的人类种群和生存动态产生了重大影响。
