著者
山川 /修治
出版者
公益社団法人 東京地学協会
雑誌
地學雜誌 (ISSN:0022135X)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.102, no.2, pp.183-195, 1993-04-25
参考文献数
58
被引用文献数
1 5

Natural disasters in Little Ice Age (<I>c</I>. 1550-1850) and its climatic variations which formed a significant background for the disasters are mentioned. Cool summers due to a prevailing Okhotsk High were characteristic of this period. Cold winters, summer heavy rains and unstable atmospheric conditions also constituted essential features of Little Ice Age. Aerosol ejected by a series of major volcanic eruptions partly prevented solar radiation from reaching the earth' s surface (parasol effect), which resulted in cool and unusual weather. Agriculture, in particular, was vulnerable to bad weather damage. As a result of decreasing direct insolation, sometimes together with lowering temperature and/or locally increasing precipitation, seven major famines occurred during the Edo Era (1663-1868) which approximately coincided with Little Ice Age. Several cases in this paper suggest that natural environment in Little Ice Age was marked by both volcanism and weakened solar activities which &ldquo;Maunder Minimum&rdquo;(1645-1715) represented.