I couldn't find a topic that would fit in with the topic so here it is, courtesy of that repository of human knowledge the Daily Mail. Well, they printed the article taken from 'Nature'.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... story.htmlMore evidence regarding the effect volcanic eruptions have on human life and migrations.
American scientists have compared ice cores taken from Greenland and the Antarctic and have ' reconstructed the timing and associated climate forcing of nearly 300 individual volcanic eruptions extending as far back as the early Roman period.'
'As a result, climate variability observed during more recent times can be put into a multi-millennial perspective - including time periods such as the Roman Warm Period and the times of significant cultural change such as Great Migration Period of the 6th century in Europe.’
The technique also allows scientists to look at the role that large climatic changes may have had in the rise and fall of civilisations throughout human history.
The study's lead author, Michael Sigl added: ‘With new high-resolution records emerging from ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica, it will be possible to extend this reconstruction of volcanic forcing probably all the way back into the last Ice Age.’
It could be that much of human history is based on accident rather than deliberate action. People were responding to natural disasters they had no control over.