The Maunder Minimum
Sunspots almost vanish for seventy years during the coldest phase of the Little Ice Age.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 70 years
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Between about 1645 and 1715 astronomers record almost no sunspots — perhaps fifty over the whole period where thousands would be expected. It coincides with the coldest decades of the Little Ice Age in Europe: the Thames freezes hard enough for frost fairs, Alpine glaciers advance over farmland, and harvests fail repeatedly. How much of the cooling the solar minimum caused, as against volcanic activity, remains debated.