Scientists: volcanic eruptions contributed to the fall of the dynasties of the Chinese emperors 
An international team of researchers showed that contributed to the dramatic climate changes caused by volcanic eruptions. The researchers presented their conclusions about the culprits of the fall of the Chinese dynasties in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Scientists from Trinity College and Zhejiang University, together with colleagues from Germany and the United States, have collected and analyzed data from the chronicles of the fall of Chinese dynasties over the past two thousands years. They then compared them to the dates of 156 volcanic eruptions from 1 to 1915, obtained from the analysis of the sulfate content in the ice cores. It turns out that the fall of 62 of the 68 dynasties was preceded by at least one volcanic eruption.
“Through [analysis of] sulfate deposits in the polar ice, researchers have identified many historical eruptions, so we expected some of the falls from volcanic eruptions to be preceded purely by chance. To convince ourselves that we are seeing something significant, we performed a numerical analysis and found that there is a 0.05 percent chance that so many falls are preceded by so many eruptions, ”says John Matthews, one of the researchers, postdoc at Trinity College. .
The researchers also assessed the role of volcanism in conjunction with other sources of social stress, assessing the level of activity of hostilities before the fall of a particular dynasty. Scientists were able to identify a stable relationship between the strength of the climatic shock caused by volcanism and the level of existing social tension. “Even a small volcanic eruption with the existing high instability can lead to a fall. Large eruptions can lead to it even when the instability is minimal, ”concluded Matthews.