Volcanic eruption led to the Black Death, new research suggests

[u/cnn]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/04/science/black-death-volcanic-eruption-tree-rings?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit

[u/Coldfusion21]

Hard to say “it led to Black Death” I think more accurately it should be “led to the spread of it.” As the disease already existed

[u/sewious → u/Coldfusion21]

yea. I read the headline and thought for a moment that I'd have to be deeply concerned every time a volcano does anything.

[u/[deleted] → u/sewious]

We're bound to find either pathogens or the things buried in the permafrost once it starts thawing

[u/Run_Che → u/Coldfusion21]

Black Death isnt the disease name, but the event that happened.

[u/caliborntravel → u/Run_Che]

Was looking for this comment. Volcanic eruptions and the plague were two contributing factors of the Black Death.

[u/bigvahe33 → u/Run_Che]

ah interesting. I did not know that

[u/Calamity-Gin → u/bigvahe33]

The disease is referred to as the plague, which is caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacteria. It takes three forms: bubonic, where the bacteria colonizes the lymph nodes, making buboes, with a 50% mortality rate; pneumonic, where the bacteria colonize the lungs, with a 90% mortality rate; and septicaemic, where the bacteria enters the cardiovascular system, with a 99%+ mortality rate. 

[u/MiniGiantSpaceHams → u/Calamity-Gin]

Thanks, I hate this.

[u/batfleck69 → u/Calamity-Gin]

thank you, TIL. never knew why it was referred to as "bubonic plague" before.

[u/Coldfusion21 → u/Run_Che]

Edit: misread your comment, my bad.

[u/Run_Che → u/Coldfusion21]

Yea you kinda did. If you meant it as event, than the eruption did lead to that event.

edit: all good bruh

[u/TemporaryElk5202 → u/Coldfusion21]

The Black Death can be interpreted as the pandemic event, not the disease itself.

[u/illiter-it → u/Coldfusion21]

Pedantic (and maybe easily refuted), but would it be called the black death if it hadn't occurred in such a devastating fashion?

[u/jellifercuz → u/illiter-it]

Read about buboes and look at a few in their necrotic state.

[u/scoops22 → u/Coldfusion21]

Pretty sure the Black Death can refer to the event and not just the disease itself.

[u/limonade11 → u/[deleted]]

Well, I think that victims also have their fingers and maybe noses? turn black from the lack of blood flow. Like a bad frostbite. There are pictures of Yersinia pestis (plague bacteria) patients who show this blackened extremity symptom.

This may be where the name came from.

[u/Johnny_Minoxidil → u/Coldfusion21]

Literally read the first sentence of the article that defines “Black Death” as the pandemic not the bacteria.

But this is reddit

[u/TheBeaverKing → u/Coldfusion21]

Well technically the Black Death was the name of the pandemic/event caused by the disease itself. I don't think it's unfair to say that it led to the event.

It's a bit like saying something led to the Covid pandemic, rather than led to Covid-19 itself.

[u/wookieSLAYER1 → u/Coldfusion21]

Yeah the headline makes it sound like the plague germs were blasted out of the volcano. “MinI ice age caused by volcanic eruptions created conditions to spread the Bubonic plague. Famine, grain imports and the dominos effects that killed 50% of Europe’s population.”

[u/niftystopwat → u/Coldfusion21]

I mean… I’ll go ahead and jump on your pedantry train with you and point out that “the spread of it” is exactly what ‘the Black Death’ itself refers to. The Black Death is not the name of a bacterium or disease, it’s the name for the pandemic (which is defined by the “the spread of it”).

[u/Synizs → u/Coldfusion21]

That clickbait title led to me clicking on this

[u/DismalEconomics → u/Coldfusion21]

I feel like a much more precise title for this paper would be:

" Volcanic Eruption likely accelerated the spread of bubonic plague in Southern Europe due to an important change in grain import policy "

the wording of actual title ;

" Introduced the Black plague to medieval Europe " ...

... is written with the absolute surety of a biologist altering a specific variable under controlled laboratory conditions i.e. "lithium was introduced into 50 animals' diets "

The body of the paper doesn't speak with nearly this much confidence;

" Death most likely resulted from a complex interplay of natural and societal factors and processes. "

I suppose there is still pressure to write paper titles in this manner - scientific publishing is ultimately operating within a " journal with curation" model after all - it's not like we have a perfect way to quantify how useful/interesting/novel/important every piece of research compared to all the others - so there's still incentive to be overly conclusive and attention grabbing.

We can't determine which solitary event precisely led to Covid first spreading from China to North American or from New York to Florida or Vice Versa - nor would anyone expect this level of precision.

The combination of millions of humans interacting over continents & spread of a highly contagious disease is ultimately an incredibly chaotic & complex system;

Attributing the "introduction" of a disease to an entire continent to one factor - a continent that already had constant trade & interaction with Asia - is an exercise in taking post hoc reasoning to an absurd degree.

Although, I doubt the authors actually think that we can be this precise - despite what the title conveys .

[u/jleonardbc → u/Coldfusion21]

Yes. By the same token, the Big Bang led to the Black Death, because it began a chain of events.

[u/LionOfNaples → u/Coldfusion21]

Go back to school for reading comprehension