Sunday, March 25, 2018

"Researchers from the University of Cambridge found evidence that Iceland's conversion to Christianity was linked to a massive eruption shortly after the island was settled"

Forbes:
The eruption of Eldgjá was a lava flood, which produced prolonged lava flows across the island, literally flooding the landscape with lava.

...

The earliest settlers of Iceland, a combination of Vikings and Celts around 874, were exposed to this massive eruption just two or three generations after inhabiting the island. This led to a massive cultural, health, and economic impact on the settlers during the early years.

The eruption was chronicled across Europe with accounts of a weakened blood-red Sun, cool summer, bitterly cold winter, drought, famine, and locust infestations. By the 940s there was widespread starvation and death from northern Europe to northern China.