GeoWednesday: VIKINGS - Volcanic Eruptions and their Impacts on Climate, Environment, and Viking Society in 500-1250 CE.

VIKINGS is a multi-disciplinary project that aims to understand the role of volcanic eruptions and climate change in shaping the early history of Scandinavia. The period 500-1250 Common Era is characterized by societal unrest, Viking expansion, emerging kingship - and large volcanic eruptions evidenced by geochemical markers in natural archives. The climate variations in Europe, and especially in Scandinavia during this period, are however poorly resolved even on a timescale of centuries. Moreover, available dating of archeological findings from the time period have hardly been interpreted within a framework of climatic and environmental change. The VIKINGS project seeks to unravel the climate of this intriguing historic period and to address the role of volcanic eruptions impacting environmental and societal changes with a special focus on Southern Norway.

Kirstin Krüger is a Professor in Meteorology at the UiO Department of Geosciences and the leader of the VIKINGS project – a Norwegian TOPPFORSK project. Her research focuses on stratospheric dynamics and the role of transport from climate relevant gases from the surface to the middle atmosphere. In the past 15 years, she has worked on large explosive volcanic eruptions and their impacts on climate, environment and society during present day and paleo time scales.

The event will be live streamed.