| So, Michelle, shall we make a start on our presentation? |
| We haven't got that much time left. |
| No, Adam. |
| But at least we've done all the background reading. |
| I found it really interesting. |
| I'd never even heard of the Laki eruption before this. |
| Me neither. |
| I suppose 1783 is a long time ago. |
| But it was a huge eruption |
| and it had such devastating consequences. |
| I know. |
| It was great there were so many primary sources to look at. |
| It really gives you a sense of how catastrophic the volcano was. |
| People were really trying to make sense of the science for the first time. |
| That's right. |
| But what I found more significant was how it impacted directly and indirectly on political events, |
| as well as having massive social and economic consequences. |
| I know. |
| That should be the main focus of our presentation. |
| The observations made by people at the time were interesting, weren't they? |
| I mean, they all gave a pretty consistent account of what happened, |
| even if they didn't always use the same terminology. |
| Yeah. |
| I was surprised there were so many weather stations established by that time, |
| so, you know, you can see how the weather changed, often by the hour. |
| Right. |
| Writers at the time talked about the Laki haze to describe the volcanic fog that spread across Europe. |
| They all realised that this wasn't the sort of fog they were used to, |
| and of course this was in pre-industrial times, |
| so they hadn't experienced sulphur-smelling fog before. |
| No, that's true. |
| Reports from the period blamed the haze for an increase in headaches, |
| respiratory issues and asthma attacks. |
| And they all describe how it covered the sun and made it look a strange red colour. |
| Must have been very weird. |
| It's interesting that Benjamin Franklin wrote about the haze. |
| Did you read that? |
| He was the American ambassador in Paris at the time. |
| Yeah. |
| At first no one realised that the haze was caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland. |
| It was Benjamin Franklin who realised that before anyone else. |
| He's often credited with that, apparently. |
| But a French naturalist beat him to it. I can't remember his name. |
| I'd have to look it up. |
| Then other naturalists had the same idea, |
| all independently of each other. |
| Oh right. |
| We should talk about the immediate impact of the eruption, which was obviously enormous, |
| especially in Iceland, where so many people died. |
| You'd expect that. |
| And the fact that the volcanic ash drifted so swiftly |
| but not that the effects would go on for so long. |
| Or that two years after the eruption, |
| strange weather events were being reported as far away as North America and North Africa. |
| No. |
| I found all that hard to believe too. |
| It must have been terrible |
| and there was nothing anyone could do about it, |
| even if they knew the ash cloud was coming in their direction. |
| We should run through some of the terrible consequences of the eruption experienced in different countries. |
| There's quite a varied range. |
| Starting with Iceland, where the impact on farming was devastating. |
| One of the most dramatic things there was the effect on livestock as they grazed in the fields. |
| They were poisoned because they ate vegetation that had been contaminated with fluorine |
| as a result of the volcanic fallout. |
| That was horrible. |
| In Egypt, the bizarre weather patterns led to a severe drought |
| and as a result the Nile didn't flood, |
| which meant the crops all failed. |
| It's so far from where the eruption happened |
| and yet the famine there led to more people dying than any other country. |
| It was worse than the plague. |
| OK. |
| Then in the UK the mortality rate went up a lot, presumably from respiratory illnesses. |
| According to one report it was about double the usual number |
| and included an unusually high percentage of people under the age of 25. |
| I think people will be surprised to hear that the weather in the USA was badly affected too. |
| George Washington even makes a note in his diary that they were snowbound until March in Virginia. |
| That was before he became president. |
| Yes, and there was ice floating down the Mississippi, which was unprecedented. |
| Astonishing, really. |
| Anyway, what do you think... |