Human Saga

Kuwae Eruption (Vanuatu)

c. 1452 CE·Environment & climate·Vanuatu, Shepherd Islands (Oceania)·
c. 1452 CEDate
Environment & climateCategory
28Empires active
Date
c. 1452 CE
Category
Environment & climate
Region
Vanuatu, Shepherd Islands (Oceania)
Era
Post-Classical / Medieval
Significance

Around 1452 CE a colossal volcanic eruption in the Shepherd Islands of present-day Vanuatu destroyed the island of Kuwae, splitting it and leaving a submarine caldera roughly 6 by 12 km across between the modern islands of Epi and Tongoa.

Estimated at VEI 6 with tens of cubic kilometres of erupted material, it ranks among the largest volcanic events of the past millennium and is preserved in Ni-Vanuatu oral tradition as a cataclysm that sank a once-continuous landmass, recounted in the legend of the hero Ti Tongoa Liseiriki. The eruption injected a massive load of sulphur into the stratosphere, registering as one of the strongest sulfate spikes of the last 700 years in both Greenland and Antarctic ice cores. The resulting aerosol veil is linked to severe Northern Hemisphere cooling in 1453, including nonstop snow and crop failures in China, frosts in Mexico, and a strange fog over Constantinople during the Ottoman siege. The precise attribution and dating remain debated, with later ice-core studies separating a 1452/53 sulfate event from a distinct 1458 event and some researchers questioning whether Kuwae itself was the source.

See the world map in c. 1452 CE →More environment & climateThe Post-Classical / Medieval era

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A New Green History of the World

Clive Ponting

The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.

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