Rare set of varied factors triggered Black Death

Image: Pieter Bruegel’s The Triumph of Death reflects the social upheaval and terror that followed the plague in medieval Europe. Image source: Wikimedia Commons / Museo Nacional del Prado. CC BY-SA 4.0 (no modifications). Article by Jennifer Ouellette. Ars Technica – December 5, 2025. Research article: Communications Earth & Environment.

The Black Death ravaged medieval Western Europe, ultimately wiping out roughly one-third of the population. Scientists have identified the bacterium responsible and its likely origins, but certain specifics of how and why it spread to Europe are less clear. According to a new paper published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, either one large volcanic eruption or a cluster of eruptions might have been the triggering factor, setting off a chain of events that brought the plague to the Mediterranean region in the 1340s. […]

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