Campanian Ignimbrite volcanism, climate, and the final decline of the Neanderthals

Black, Benjamin A.; Neely, Ryan R.; Manga, Michael

doi:10.1130/G36514.1

Campanian Ignimbrite volcanism, climate, and the final decline of the Neanderthals

Journal Article · Fri May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Geology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1130/G36514.1· OSTI ID:1512181

Black, Benjamin A. ^[1]; Neely, Ryan R. ^[2]; Manga, Michael ^[1]

Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth and Planetary Science
Univ. of Leeds, Leeds (United Kingdom). National Centre for Atmospheric Science, Inst. for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment,; National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States). Advanced Study Program

The eruption of the Campanian Ignimbrite at ca. 40 ka coincided with the final decline of Neanderthals in Europe. Environmental stress associated with the eruption of the Campanian Ignimbrite has been invoked as a potential driver for this extinction as well as broader upheaval in Paleolithic societies. To test the climatic importance of the Campanian eruption, we used a three-dimensional sectional aerosol model to simulate the global aerosol cloud after release of 50 Tg and 200 Tg SO₂. We coupled aerosol properties to a comprehensive earth system model under last glacial conditions. Here, we find that peak cooling and acid deposition lasted one to two years and that the most intense cooling sidestepped hominin population centers in Western Europe. We conclude that the environmental effects of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption alone were insufficient to explain the ultimate demise of Neanderthals in Europe. Nonetheless, significant volcanic cooling during the years immediately following the eruption could have impacted the viability of already precarious populations and influenced many aspects of daily life for Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1512181

Journal Information:: Geology, Journal Name: Geology Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 43; ISSN 0091-7613

Publisher:: Geological Society of AmericaCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Understanding the plume dynamics of explosive super-eruptions Costa, Antonio; J. Suzuki, Yujiro; Koyaguchi, Takehiro Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-02901-0	journal	February 2018
The footprint of column collapse regimes on pyroclastic flow temperatures and plume heights Trolese, Matteo; Cerminara, Matteo; Esposti Ongaro, Tomaso Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10337-3	journal	June 2019
Systemic swings in end-Permian climate from Siberian Traps carbon and sulfur outgassing Black, Benjamin A.; Neely, Ryan R.; Lamarque, Jean-François Nature Geoscience, Vol. 11, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0261-y	journal	November 2018
Reconstructing the plinian and co-ignimbrite sources of large volcanic eruptions: A novel approach for the Campanian Ignimbrite Marti, Alejandro; Folch, Arnau; Costa, Antonio Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21220	journal	February 2016
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The Exergy Footprint as a Sustainability Indicator: An Application to the Neanderthal–Sapiens Competition in the Late Pleistocene Sciubba, Enrico Sustainability, Vol. 11, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11184913	journal	September 2019
High-precision 14C and 40Ar/39 Ar dating of the Campanian Ignimbrite (Y-5) reconciles the time-scales of climatic-cultural processes at 40 ka Giaccio, Biagio; Hajdas, Irka; Isaia, Roberto ETH Zurich https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000130448	text	January 2017

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