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video it was on the sixth day of the sixth month of the 66th year of the 15th century a.d the devout citizens of florence were shaken by the fiery sermon of the franciscan friar michelle carcano preaching in the cathedral of santa maria del flore the friar thundered from his pulpit about the calamities which had scourged the italian land the raids of the turks an unknown plague torrential reigns and famine he warned his congregation that these were all signs of a divine judgment which was to come any day the omen was clear an alignment of jupiter and mars which has happened only twice before when moses had received the divine law on mount sinai and when jesus christ had become incarnate in the virgin mary florentines as well as inhabitants of most of europe china and the aztec empire had indeed been living and dying through decades of unpredictable weather patterns endless winters and failing crops the judgment day obviously did not arrive but easy times these certainly were not jupiter and mars though were not to blame rather an earthier cataclysm a still mysterious gigantic volcanic event taking place somewhere in the pacific this is the story of the mystery eruption of the 15th century on many occasions around the midpoint of the 15th century inhabitants of our wondrous planet observed signs importance never observed before on the 14th of september 1465 melanie's noblewoman ipolita maria sforza entered the city of naples with her entourage to marry king alfonso every bride-to-be knows that she must bring to her wedding something old something new something borrowed something blue epilita really outdid herself as local chroniclers reported that on that day the sun turned blue from noon until the evening the sun was of blue color and hardly shone within fog and haze and this endured for ten days accompanied by silence and calm of the air without any breeze similar phenomena were recorded in germany around the same date in the westphalian town of zost the sun in the sky was so blue and the air so yellow that nobody knew what that might be the sun's ring and its light were blue and for some time red and white while the sun over constance southern germany sometimes changed colors yellow then red surrounded by circles like a rainbow sightings of similar anomalies predated the late summer of 1465. in 1464 a chronicle from the island of imbross in the aegean noted unusual signs in the sky the midday sun took the color of dark copper as if covered by a dense gloomy cloud aztec sources from the same year describe how it rained summer fires which destroyed old trees and prevented farmers from sowing thousands of miles away a mysterious fog fell over beijing while central and southeastern china were scourged by a rain of black rice falling from the sky elsewhere in the world worried citizens and especially farmers took notice of a strange persistent hovering fog it blocked the light and heat from the sun blew or otherwise causing unpredictable weather patterns and harvest failures to modernize this global level event shares eerie similarities with the year without a summer of 1816 which followed the 1815 eruption of mount tambora in indonesia now we've already got a video on that cataclysmic chain of events so we'll not go into details here if you want to learn more well you can watch that video what matters to us is that something similar happened four centuries earlier but who or what was the culprit research into the elusive eruption of the 1400s began with a series of archaeological expeditions in the south pacific in the 1950s researchers visiting the island of tonga and venatu collected stories about a now disappeared land mass which linked it to the nearby epi this land was known as kuwait and it was the home of the gian volcano according to local law an inhabitant of kuwait was tricked into sleeping with his own mother understandably he flew into a supernatural rage of such proportions to cause an eruption now edible legends aside the story perpetuated the memory of a series of earthquakes topped by a volcanic event which destroyed kuwait causing it to sink into the ocean from then on epi and tonga became two separate islands the survivors of the explosions fled by boats to the nearby islands only to die later of unknown causes the last living kuwain a young man called titon goa lissaki settled in tonga and passed the story down the generations for centuries onwards as is often the case with legends and folklore researchers suspected there was a kernel of truth to the story of the young tongoen to begin with half a mile deep beneath the ocean halfway between epi and tonga there is in fact a caldera or underwater crater the next step was to ascertain if and when a cataclysm of such magnitude had actually happened fast forward to the 1980s and geological expeditions investigating polar ice cores found spikes in acidity dating back to the 15th century analysis of ice core acidity is a common method used to study ancient volcanic eruptions as these tend to disperse enormous quantities of sulfuric acid into the atmosphere sediment and emissions from eruptions later resettle at ground level later to be covered by layer upon layer of polar ice the comparative analysis of these layers can help identify the date and even magnitude of the explosion this is how researchers estimated that the 15th century blast may have been more violent than the tambora event an eruption which unleashed destructive energy equivalent to 2.2 million atomic bombs so we have the what an alleged eruption in kuwait then we have the wen a previously unknown volcano going off in the 15th century another archaeological expedition uncovered the alleged remains of titon goa liciki the survivor by using carbon dating technology they found that he must have died sometime between the 14th and 15th century it would be easy to jump to conclusions then in the 1400s a volcano exploded in the south pacific destroying away the gas and ashes spewed into the atmosphere creating a permanent fog or haze which affects most of the globe this haze blocks out the sun giving it a blue or dark copper appearance somewhere else ashes rain down on earth appearing as grains of black rice more worryingly the layer of volcanic emissions blocks most of the sun's heat causing harvests to fail but the scientific community is skeptical by nature there were still too many question marks hanging in the air what was the exact year of the event was kuwait really the guilty party and did the mystery eruption actually even take place in the early 1990s a team of french geologists led by professor michelle morzier visited the kauai caldera and in may of 1993 they published their findings they estimated that the eruption had released enough magma to fill up the empire state building 37 million times over and the solid debris was shot 30 miles into the sky the team also found remains of trees devastated by the eruption and put them through a radiocarbon test according to their findings the event took place between 1420 and 1430 but another researcher publishing in december of the same year did not agree dr kevin pang of nasa's jet propulsion laboratory firmly dated the kuwait explosion to the year 1453 he reached this conclusion by piecing together a number of convincing clues mostly related to unusual weather patterns and historical records of crop failures for example china was hit by copious snowfalls lasting as long as 40 days contemporary chronicles state that the yellow sea froze up to 13 miles from the shore as a result tens of thousands of people died of frostbite and starvation in sweden grain crops failed leaving grain stalls and bellies woefully empty an even worse famine struck the aztec empire tree ring records show that the year 1454 was characterized by an extended drought it's no coincidence that aztec codices mentioned that year as one of the famine of one rabbit according to the aztec calendar one rabbit is the first year of the recurring 52-year cycle and according to folklore this year always comes with a curse resulting in catastrophe and famine pang found clues linking the kuwait explosion to another horseman of the apocalypse war on the 22nd of may 1453 defenders of the great siege of constantinople were astounded by the sight of a great fire raging in the sky a divine sign of impending doom maybe a turkish tactic according to pang it was merely an optical illusion it had been caused by the rays of the setting sun reflecting on the ashes spewed by kuwait into the atmosphere ten years later an expedition from mata university in new zealand chipped in environmental scientist caroline mammoth was specifically looking for signs of a cataclysmic blast capable of changing weather patterns worldwide well nemeth's findings were anticlimactic to say the least the team analyzed the existing caldera and concluded that the original volcano must have been no more than a thousand meters high this was about a quarter of tambora and too small to generate an eruptive column capable of global impact nemeth and team did find evidence of pyroclastic flows around the mid-1400s but these did not match the scenario of one single massive blast if anything these flows told the story of a series of small localized eruptions which may have happened mostly underwater again no chance that kuwait may have turned the sun blue in naples or starved the farmers internet shipment i expect these findings dampened the efforts of many hollywood scriptwriters known for the accurate research poured into their historical fiction works there it was a fantastical story based on a loud bang which turned out to be no more than a whiff but despair not for further studies produced a picture for rather more apocalyptic scenarios two independent research teams led by professor christopher plummer and professor jihong koldai delivered a double whammy of further evidence in 2012 and 2013 they analyzed ice cores from a site in antarctica known as lore dome here they found confirmation of sulfur spikes occurring in the 15th century therefore proving again that a cataclysmic explosion did happen furthermore they provided another estimate for the year of the explosion 1458. but don't fixate too much on that date as it carries a margin of error plus or minus seven years dr martin bought from the university of leipzig in his 2017 paper the day the sun turned blue points out that plummer and cold eye may have had their date slightly off 1458 plus seven takes us to 1465. the year in which the wedding of king alfonso was made memorable
by a bluer shade of sun so what if the previous hypothesis by dr pang and the fire in the sky observed a constantinople book dismissed this notion stating that chroniclers may have exaggerated reports to confirm the fulfillment of ancient prophecies on the fall of the byzantine empire dr borg proceeded to compile a series of occurrences taking place in the 1460s and 1470s leading him to suggest that the kauai explosion took place in 1464 and had lasting consequences so let's have a look at the evidence we've already covered the blue sun of september 1465. further sightings were reported by heidelberg historian mathias von kam nat who wrote that during the rule of frederick the first of the palatonate 1452-1475 the sun has been seen blue many times a day and a cross was spotted in the moon as well as many more miracles in the sky besides prodigious event citizens of europe had to contend with the consequences of climate change in a few words 1465 was the original year without a summer this annis horribilis kicked off in january with heavy rainfalls causing the arno river to flood florence in march and april severe precipitation fell upon mercia in the normally dry southeast of spain may in ireland was abnormally frosty and snowy early summer in italy and france was cool and rainy which led to poor harvests of fruit and most importantly grain this represented the staple diet for the majority of europeans in the late medieval period small crops of wheat barley and rye would cause shortages inflation and at the end of the chain famine the death of grain was indeed worryingly according to contemporary sources mostly italian a chronicler in lombardy noted how grain prices had tripled between august 1464 and may 1465 due to scarcity and the people could not afford bread anymore the famine was compounded by a general economic crisis which had reduced the earnings of craftsmen traders and merchants an edict by the government of bologna dated 29th of july bans grain exports indicating that the city's food reserves were almost totally spent northern france suffered a different issue there the harvest was abundant but the grain was largely moldy due to inclement weather the effects therefore were the same the lack of summer also devastated one of europe's key economic sectors the production of wine in autumn of 1465 as europe chronicle lamented that the grapes were so hard that vine workers shied away from gorging on them around the same time casks of wine produced around metz paris and thuringia were dumped on mass due to their sour quality but the effects of the chilly weather did not abate at the end of summer they continued for several months even years in the autumn of 65 lakes zurich and constance in switzerland froze solid the ice was so thick that people could dance on the lakes and even cross them with horses weeks even months of snowfalls were suddenly interrupted by an apparent hiking temperatures the resulting thawing caused another season of widespread flooding citizens of florence barely had cleared the mud and snow from the previous months when the sea was flooded again in january 1466. the same fate befell marlborough castle in poland's fortress of the teutonic order the sellers overflowed with water and i imagine those mighty nights had to ditch sword and shield to toil away with mop and bucket exactly one year later the same pattern of rain followed by melting snow in and dating yorkshire and presumably most of northern england freezing rain fell upon northern france for weeks without break in the spring of 1467. later on the 29th of september germans and italians both observed an unusual comet believing it was a messenger of further tragedy to come they weren't wrong rain continued to pour down over those lands until the end of the year and well into 1468 many german sources recorded how the autumn of 1468 was so wet that corpses started surfacing in the cemeteries due to the rising ground water whilst barely any source recalls people dying directly of hunger europeans suffered greatly from a direct consequence of starvation epidemic disease in july several clergymen in glatz modern day classical poland were recorded as dying of an unknown pestilence this may have been the same disease which the following month ravaged switzerland and the ousseas region in autumn the disease characterized by fever and chest pain reach northern italy it seems like the epidemic subsided during the winter only to reappear in may of 1466 in mets northern france here church authorities imported a piece of the holy cross which reached the city in august apparently it worked and the plague abated but not in poland there the epidemic was so severe that no person was fit or alive enough to tend the fields cities towns and villages were left deserted the unknown illness returned to northern italy in early 1468. desperate city authorities
looking for answers to the scourge resorted to imprisoning doctors to them this was the only possible explanation medical professionals had been voluntarily poisoning citizens to steal their goods the pestilence did not spare the eternal city or rather the countryside around rome food growers were too ill to bring their produce to market leaving romans to die of hunger by june the epidemic had spread to hamburg lubeck and cologne in october thousands of deaths were recorded in strauss and on germany's baltic coast the disease crossed the sea in 1469 landing in sweden where it stayed until 1471. following a different path the mysterious plague knocked on the door of the ottoman empire constantinople cyprus and other areas endured wave after wave until 1472. dr barr's research is currently the latest comprehensive inquiry on the mysterious eruption and we personally find the evidence to be quite compelling but the author himself notes that his findings are by no means conclusive unusual weather patterns and outbreaks of unidentified diseases took place earlier than 1464 his estimated date at the quay explosion for example heavy snowfalls out of season damage crops and disrupted travel as early as 1461. devastating famines crippled livelihoods in venice england and france in the first months of 1464. the pestilence
had already emptied cities north and south of the alps in 1461 before sweeping germany in 1463. understandably the scientific community is not 100 convinced yet of what exactly happened and when so allow me now to piece together all cited research into a single interpretation of events it seems likely that the koi volcano was extraordinarily active from 1420 to 1465 with evidence of several eruptions some of these were not large enough to warrant worldwide effects while at least one of them resulted in a climate altering event of global proportions pinpointing the exact date may not be possible not yet at least but we could venture the hypothesis that the effects lasted for years even decades as the multitude of different reports seemed to suggest in other words if tambora gave us the year without summer kuwait was responsible for the years without a summer but we're not an expert and if you are well as the comment section below for our part we can only conclude with a grim reflection that what we have learned from studying such events is how interconnected and fragile human society is and how dependent it is on the sudden violent whims of nature poem philosopher giacomo leopardi lived in the shadow of the year without summer of 1816 and he best summarized this concept in his dialogue between nature and an icelander in this short parable an icelander whose life had been made miserable by the harshness of the elements and natural disasters finally comes face to face with the personification of nature herself appearing as a gigantic woman as he laments his woes and asks the reasons for her hostility nature states her indifference to the plight of man thinkers thou then that the world was made for thee it is time thou knewest that in my designs operations and decrees i never gave a thought to the happiness or unhappiness of man if i cause you to suffer i am unaware of the fact what i do is in no sense done for your enjoyment or benefit as you seem to think if i by chance exterminated your species i should not know it so i really hope you found today's video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching you
2022-02-21