Volcanic ash from the 1362 A.D. Oræfajokull Eruption (Iceland) in the Greenland Ice Sheet

Abstract

A continuous record of electrical conductivity measurements (ECM) was made on site during the drilling of a 200 m ice core at Summit, Greenland and was used to identify horizons in the ice that might be linked to volcanic eruptions. In one detailed section that we studied a large peak in the number of particles, two orders of magnitude above the background, was measured. The particle peak was not associated with an ECM peak, however. The particles were identified as volcanic ash on the basis of both particle morphology and chemical composition. The ash composition suggests an explosive rhyolitic eruption and is believed to have originatedfrom Oræfajokull in Iceland in 1362 A.D.