뉴스레터

Question

Korean and overseas geologists have been saying that the volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu is imminent. Some even claim that the fall of Balhae some 1,000 years ago was caused by the volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu. What should we make of this claim?

Answer

The volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu occurred after Balhae's collapse

Immediately following the volcanic eruption in Iceland, which affected Europe and many other parts of the world, there have been rumblings that the volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu is imminent. There have been heightened magma activity inside Mount Baekdu and earthquakes and other such signs in the surrounding areas are stoking forecasts of an imminent eruption. The volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu around the 10th century is being linked to Balhae's demise to illustrate the potential damages the projected eruption will cause. The linkage so established is calling for transnational interest in the matter from the many countries comprising Northeast Asia.

Volcanic ashes from Mount Baekdu were excavated in Japan's Aomori region in the early 1990s. Diverse chronologies have been proposed from the results of the radiocarbon dating of the ashes. However, the chronologies all predate the collapse of Balhae. Therefore, the volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu could not have been the direct cause of Balhae's fall. Nevertheless, there has been a reemergence of the claim that Balhae's demise in the 10th century was caused by a volcanic eruption in the 9 century, thereby stressing the volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu as the cause of Balhae's fall.

Is the study of the volcanic ashes of Mount Baekdu shedding new light on the cause of Balhae's downfall? The answer is negative. Moreover, Korea and China's current governmental studies on the volcanic activities of Mount Baekdu focus more on seeking response measures to the impact Mount Baekdu's volcanic eruption will have on the surrounding area.

Expectations for a historical perspective of volcanology/ volcanological perspective of history

A direct reference to the cause of Balhae's demise can be gleaned from the following line in the "Biography of Yelu Yuzhi [耶律羽之]"of Liao Shi [遼史; History of Liao]: "They won without a fight by sending in an army when there was public discontentment and confusion." Most studies so far regard this line as suggesting internal confusion—i.e., civil strife, which the Khitan took advantage of and brought down Balhae without much effort.

Surprisingly, this very same line is used to link the fall of Balhae with the volcanic eruption of Mount Bakedu in volcanological studies.

However, Liao Shi is not a Balhae-centric but a Khitan-centric historical record. That is, the account of Balhae's demise reflects a Khitan-centric narrative. In other words, "public discontentment" and "confusion" must be understood as an outside interpretation by the Khitan about what it thought was going on in Balhae.

The limitations of such an interpretation of historical sources have become interlinked with the early series of data analyses on volcanic ashes from Mount Baekdu. With growing global interest in environmental changes, the volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu is attracting much attention. One noteworthy point related to the issue in question is that unlike Korean and Japanese geological communities, Chinese geologists are not setting forth any claims linking the volcanic eruption of Mount Baekdu to Balhae's collapse.

What we need now is an interdisciplinary approach that will bring together relevant historical findings and geological research findings, which have been left more or less separate. This way, we may be able to get to the bottom of the cause of Balhae's fall or complete a chronological analysis of Mount Baekdu's volcanic eruptions. In short, we need a historical perspective of volcanology/ volcanological perspective of history that will spur advances in both the fields.