I find it interesting how carefully the title of this article is curated. It's a pure (harmless) clickbait. I wonder if it necessarily attracts the right eyeball. Or any eyeball is a good eyeball?
> The darkest lunar eclipses all occurred within a year or so of major volcanic eruptions.
Which if correct, has predictive power about future eruptions, since future lunar eclipses can be accurately predicted.
You can certainly predict a darker-than-usual lunar eclipse (if a volcano recently erupted), if that’s your thing.
So the "darker than usual" aspect won't be from astronomical calculations, but from the historical records. Seems like it: "By putting together the information from ice cores and the descriptions from medieval texts we can now make better estimates of when and where some of the biggest eruptions of this period occurred."
To me, it’s a great title.
Imagine the title if the idea came up while on the toilet.