Solar minima and the genesis of Frankenstein

I mentioned that there are, somewhat counterintuitively, more volcanic eruptions and earthquakes during solar minima, when the sun's output is lower. You might think, with less kinetic energy in the system, things would be calmer, but no. 

It was during a solar minimum that that bastard in Indonesia popped, and gave Europe the "year without a summer," during which the Shelleys and Byron were holed up on Lake Geneva in the Villa Diodato (or some such name) and they killed time reading Gothic horror stories, and they proposed a contest to invent such a story. After a few uneventful nights, Mary had her famous dream, and then commenced to write Frankenstein. She was only nineteen, even if she had help it's quite remarkable.