Scientists believe volcanic eruption may have helped trigger the Black Death

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Recent research indicates a volcanic eruption in the 1200s could have set off a series of environmental events that eventually helped the Black Death spread throughout Europe over a hundred years afterward.

A recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment found that the massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1257, known as Samalas, caused several years of unusually cold temperatures, widespread crop failures, and significant shifts in population across Europe and Asia.

The research suggested that these unstable conditions allowed populations of rodents carrying the plague to grow, ultimately leading to its wider transmission.

How researchers linked the eruption to the plague

The study found that the volcanic eruption sent huge amounts of ash and tiny particles into the air, causing a significant decrease in temperatures around the world.

A severe and prolonged cold snap caused crops to fail repeatedly, leading to widespread hunger and significant changes in where animals and people lived.

The Black Plague is believed to have been transmitted to humans by fleas carried by rats.

These conditions probably allowed plague to thrive in rodents of central Asia, where the fleas that spread the bacteria causing the Black Death were commonly found.

When climate change disrupted communities, they began trading over longer distances, which unfortunately created more chances for the plague to spread between those areas.

Okay, so the scientists made it clear – the volcano didn’t cause the Black Death. But it sounds like it messed with things enough that when the plague did hit, it was way worse than it could have been. Basically, the eruption created a perfect storm of bad conditions that helped the outbreak spread and become super deadly.

In the mid-1300s, the Black Death swept through Europe, killing an estimated 25 to 50 million people.

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2025-12-06 16:18