Environmental and social responses in Europe to the 1783 eruption of the Laki fissure volcano in Iceland: a consideration of contemporary documentary evidence

This paper is part of the special publication No.161, Volcanoes in the Quaternary (eds: C.R. Firth and W.J. McGuire). A detailed examination of contemporary documentary evidence, including letters, diaries, historical accounts and newspaper reports, reveals the dramatic effect on the weather across the whole of western Europe of the eruption of the Laki volcanic fissure in Iceland in 1783. Extreme heat, dry sulphurous fogs, chemical pollution, and tremendous storms of thunder, lightning and hail were reported from northern Scotland to Sicily. Vegetation was defoliated, crops were destroyed, livestock were killed and property was damaged. There were also direct and indirect human casualties. The unusual conditions engendered considerable fear as well as an appeal to science for a rational explanation. Volcanic eruptions and earthquake in southern Italy and Iceland were blamed as the cause.