The Campanian Ignimbrite Eruption: New Data on Volcanic Ash Dispersal and Its Potential Impact on Human Evolution

Abstract

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.

Danube loess stratigraphy — Towards a pan-European loess stratigraphic model

“…al., 2014) and provides an independent age control (Fitzsimmons et al, 2013) Vojvodina region reported in recent papers (Marković et al, 2007Fuchs et al, 2008;Bokhorst et al, 2009;Újvári et al, 2010;Stevens et al, 2011;Hatte et al, 2013). Further, dates from loess unit V-L2 yield minimum ages of between 100 to 193 ka, supporting our suggestion of a penultimate glacial age for the unit (Schmidt et al, 2010).…”

“…At present, the most reliable quartz OSL dating results for Danubian loess appear to derive from finegrained material, for ages up to ca. 70 ka , and loess sections in Romania have been successfully dated within these limitations (Anechitei-Deacu et al, 2014;Constantin et al, 2012Fitzsimmons et al, 2013Fitzsimmons and Hambach, 2014), alongside sections in Serbia (Schmidt et al, 2010, Stevens et al, 2011. However, studies employing quartz OSL in Hungary have sometimes met with poor quartz luminescence properties such as low signals and reproducibility, although reliable ages may be obtained (Schatz et al, 2012).…”

“…Veres et al, 2013a;Fitzsimmons et al, 2013;Anechitei-Deacu et al, 2014;Constantin et al, 2012;Wacha and Frechen, 2011). The lower Danubian loess represents one of the few regions in Eastern Europe which can be used to test the accuracy of luminescence dating techniques, although species specific AMS 14 C dating of small gastropod shells may also prove important for younger deposits (Pigati et al, 2013).…”

“…Volcanic ashes deposited within loess have the potential to act as reliable marker horizons across loess sequences, particularly when chemically tied to specific eruptions, and precisely dated (Lowe, 2011). Pioneering tephrostratigraphic investigations have been applied to DLPS (Pouclet et al, 1999;Horvath, 2001), however, as the region is favourably located in the dispersal area of several major volcanic fields, including the nearby Carpathian, western and central European eruptive zones, and the more distal, but exceptionally productive, central and eastern Mediterranean volcanic provinces, the full potential of this technique has yet to be exploited (Veres et al, 2013b;Fitzsimmons et al, 2013).…”

“…Recent geochemical finger printing research coupled with luminescence dating identified unexpectedly thick CI occurrences within both the loess unit L1 and in alluvial sequences in southern Romania (Veres et al, 2013b;Constantin et al, 2012;Fitzsimmons et al, 2013;Fitzsimmons and Hambach, 2014).…”