Why Historians Believe 536 Was the Worst Year in Our History
The world was plunged into darkness
Right now, there are about 20 so-called “supervolcanoes” in the world, all of which are overdue an eruption, and each of which is capable of killing at least one billion people. The explosions of magma from the volcanoes themselves would be the least of our problems. Plumes of black smoke would cover much of the world’s skies, temperatures would plummet, crops would fail and people would starve.
But as Bryan Walsh, author of “End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World,” once stated, most of these dormant monsters are unlikely — statistically speaking — to erupt in our lifetimes. Yet that is not to say that humanity has never suffered a total volcanic catastrophe before, which brings us to the subject of this article — the year 536 AD.
The Dark Ages
According to a Byzantine scholar named Procopius, “during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness … and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.” In other words, during 536, the sun became obscured by a blanket of smoke. The world was plunged into darkness and temperatures on earth dropped by an average of 1.5–2.6° Celsius (34.7–36.7° Fahrenheit).
