Puzzle No. 86: Chain

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 to 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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Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

Before Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

After Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine

After Laki Fissure Eruption and the Mist Hardships Famine