I am always amazed how much we are still discovering about massive volcanic eruptions that happened as little as a few thousand years ago. Geologically speaking, that is something that happened yesterday, yet even that small slice of time can obscure some giant volcanic events whose effects could have spread across the globe.
Two recent studies have improved our understanding of two truly enormous eruptions that happened in Central and South America. One, only 1,500 years ago, may have produced one of the tallest eruption plumes in the past 10,000 years while the other may have been one of the most voluminous blasts in that same period. In both cases, it took careful geologic field mapping and geochronology (dating) to unravel two events the likes of which we haven’t experienced in centuries.
