Russia (bbabo.net) - Modeling of the Greenland coastline showed that a combination of environmental and socio-economic factors caused the Norwegian Vikings to leave the island. This is stated in the materials of the report of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans.
Harvard University geophysicist Marisa Borreggin has hypothesized that sea levels tend to rise around Greenland when ice builds up on the island.
By simulating the effects of the weight of ice and its effects on Greenland's waters, the scientists found that sea levels had risen and in some areas flooded the coastline by hundreds of meters. As a result, the colonists, who had been developing the island since 982, lost land for grazing livestock and growing crops.
“Previous theories about why the Vikings left have focused on the idea that they all died because it got very cold and people were unable to adapt. mainly for seafood, "says Borreggin.
In addition, as the climate changed and the "season of thick sea ice" expanded, the inhabitants of the colony were cut off from trade routes, and the plague epidemic in the 14th century in Europe undermined the main source of income for the colonists - the walrus bone market.
The last written record of Viking life in Greenland describes a wedding in 1408. A few years later, the couple moved to Iceland and took up farming. Until 1721, there is no mention of the inhabitants of the island.
bbabo.Net