What caused the mystery of the Dark Day?

[Still Waters]

Three centuries ago in parts of North America, a strange event turned morning to night. It remains wreathed in mystery - so what caused the Dark Day?

Halfway through the morning the sky turns yellow. Animals run for cover and darkness descends, causing people to light candles and start to pray. By lunchtime night has fallen. Is it the end of the world?

The Dark Day, as it's become known, took place on May 19, 1780 in New England and Canada. For the past 232 years historians and scientists have argued over the origins of this strange event.

Today there are many theories. Was it the result of volcanic eruption, fire, meteor strike - or something more sinister?

http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-18097177

[Ealdwita]

This event gave rise to the famous quote from Abraham Davenport, a member of the Connecticut Legislature, in reply to the other members' fears of the Day Judgment...

"I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face, No faithless servant frightened from my task, But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls; And therefore, with all reverence, I would say, Let God do His work, we will see to ours. Bring in the candles."

Edited May 18, 2012 by ealdwita

[arenee]

I had never heard of this. Thanks for bringing it to my attention although I have no theory as to what may have caused it.

[Damrod]

Well 1816 is considered the "year without a summer" and is attributed to "the little ice age" (roughly a period of cooling from the 14th century through to the early 19th century) and the eruption of Tambora.

Not sure what happened in 1780 and to be honest, this is the first I have heard of the event....thanks for sharing it. it gives me something to research. Perhaps there was an asteroid strike somewhere...but that would generally mean more than a single days event....puzzling....again...thanks for sharing.

[Damrod]

Well the initial findings suggest an odd culmination of an unusual chain of events...heavy cloud cover, heavy fog that morning and smoke from a forest fire....not cataclysmic....just odd.

neat stuff though.

[Gunn]

Meh...I can't see it being anything else, other than a massive forest fire somewhere. And the smoke just happen to linger in the upper atmosphere for a day, blocking out the sun.

[Erudite Celt]

Given the locations and time of year it was probably a forest fire.

[DKO]

In Sydney a few years ago a huge dust storm blew all the way from the Outback to the coast, Pretty much blocked out all the sunlight for a day.

From what I've seen there are no deserts near New England but that's the same with Sydney and the dust build up was much more intense along the coast than it was in between the Outback and Sydney.

Maybe a dust storm blew up into the atmosphere and made its way to the coast where it was sort of trapped by coastal winds. Just another possible reason IMO.

[Javid86]

During the dustbowl in the 1930's dust and dirt blew in from the great plains and blocked the sun all along the eastern seaboard. Maybe DKO has got something with his duststorm theory.

[White Crane Feather]

During the dustbowl in the 1930's dust and dirt blew in from the great plains and blocked the sun all along the eastern seaboard. Maybe DKO has got something with his duststorm theory.

Very possible if there were a drought up wind for a few years. One could probably determin this throug tree rings