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LiveScience
LiveScience
Ben Turner

Mini ice age was final death blow to Roman Empire, unusual rocks in Iceland suggest

Iceland Roman Empire Greenland Climate Change Rome Live Science
The fall of the Roman Empire depicted in this painting from the New York Historical Society.

A sixth-century "mini" ice age may have been "the straw that broke the camel's back" that led to the final disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, a new study claims.

Between A.D. 536 and 547, three separate volcanic eruptions generated enough ash to block out the sun for between 200 and 300 years, cooling the Earth's surface by several degrees. Now, newfound evidence of this mini ice age has been found in Iceland.

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