As pictures, chronicles and historical events reflect, Europe lived between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries a series of very harsh winters that ruined crops and spread hunger among its inhabitants. In fact, this time is known as the "Little Ice Age."
An investigation published by the journal Nature Geoscience reinforces the hypothesis that the most responsible was the Sun , which experienced a marked drop in its activity during that time.
Led by Paola Moffa-Sánchez, scientists from the University of Cardiff (Great Britain) and Bern (Switzerland) have reached this conclusion after analyzing fossilized microorganisms on the seabed south of Iceland.
"By analyzing the chemical composition of these remnants, which lived on the ocean surface, we can reconstruct the temperature and salinity of the water in the last 1,000 years," said Moffa-Sánchez.
In this way they have been able to compare the environmental changes of the North Atlantic with the sunspot registry , which are an indicator of the mood of our star: the less "freckles" on its surface, the less activity .
After introducing all the data into computerized climate models, the resulting scenario is that the cooling of the Sun generated an area of high pressure next to the British Isles, a barrier that cut off the light winds from the west . And unbalanced by these heating currents, the icy Arctic air grounded at ease during the Little Ice Age winters, similar to what happened in 2010 and 2013.
