Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine
- Date
- 8 June 1783 – 7 February 1784
- Category
- Environment & climate
- Region
- Europe
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
Beginning on 8 June 1783, the Laki (Lakagígar) fissure system in southern Iceland, linked to the Grímsvötn volcano, erupted continuously for roughly eight months, disgorging some 14 cubic kilometres of basaltic lava along with vast clouds of sulphur dioxide and hydrofluoric acid.
The fluorine-laden fallout poisoned pastures and killed the majority of Iceland's livestock, triggering the Móðuharðindin or 'Mist Hardships,' a famine that killed an estimated one-fifth (roughly 20–25 percent) of the island's population. Across Europe, a vast sulphurous 'dry fog' settled over the continent during the summer of 1783, reaching Bergen, Prague, Berlin, and Paris within days and causing tens of thousands of excess deaths from respiratory illness, including an estimated 23,000 in Britain. The eruption injected enormous quantities of sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, cooling the Northern Hemisphere and contributing to crop failures, an exceptionally harsh winter, and disrupted weather across Europe, North Africa, and Asia. The resulting subsistence crises and successive poor harvests in France are frequently cited among the environmental stresses that helped set the stage for the French Revolution of 1789.
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Empires active in 8 June 1783 – 7 February 1784
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Dutch Empire1581 CE – 1975 CE
- Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth1569 CE – 1795 CE
Related environment & climate events
- The Great Lisbon Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fire1 November 1755
- Doji bara (Skull) Famine and the Great El Nino of 1789-17931791-1792 (drought from 1789)
- Great Bengal Famine of 17701769–1770
- 1556 Shaanxi EarthquakeJanuary 23, 1556
- Deforestation and Ecological Transformation of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)c. 1600 CE
- Eruption of Huaynaputina19 February 1600
Further reading
The wider story
A New Green History of the World
The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.
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