The Laki eruption
An Icelandic fissure poisons the northern hemisphere for a year.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 365 days
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Laki erupts for eight months from June 1783, releasing enormous quantities of sulphur dioxide and fluorine. A quarter of Iceland's population dies in the resulting famine along with most of its livestock. A sulphurous haze spreads across Europe, crops fail, and the winter is exceptionally severe. Excess mortality in Britain and France ran into the tens of thousands, and the resulting hardship in France is sometimes cited among the pressures behind 1789.