Carbon dioxide (CO2) is widely accepted as the driving force behind modern climate change. Volcanoes release CO2 during eruptions, alongside other gases that can even trigger a cooling of the climate. Gases like sulphur dioxide (SO2) have been known in the past to cool temperatures across the whole of Europe and North America.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), “volcanoes can impact climate change” and “there is no question that very large volcanic eruptions can inject significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere”.
The USGS said: “During major explosive eruption huge amounts of volcanic gas, aerosol droplets and ash are injected into the stratosphere.
“Injected ash falls rapidly from the stratosphere – most of it is removed within several days to weeks – and has little impact on climate change.
“But volcanic gases like sulphur dioxide can cause global cooling, while volcanic carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, has the potential to promote global warming.”
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Volcanoes spewing SO2 into the atmosphere is a major concern for scientists because the gas converts into sulphuric acid.
The sulphuric acid then “rapidly” condenses in the stratosphere to form a layer of sulphate aerosols in the skies above.
This sulphuric layer acts like a reflective barrier that stops solar radiation from reaching the ground.
As a result, the USGS said the lower atmosphere and troposphere can witness a period of cooling.
The opposite – global warming – happens when large quantities of CO2 vent into the atmosphere.
The greenhouse gas traps the radiation from the Sun from escaping back into space, warming temperatures over periods of time.
There is no question that very large volcanic eruptions can inject significant amounts of carbon dioxide
US Geological Survey (USGS)
The USGS said: “Several eruptions during the past century have caused a decline in the average temperature at the Earth’s surface of up to half a degree – Fahrenheit scale – for periods of one to three years.
“The climactic eruption of Mount Pinatubo on June 15, 1991, was one of the largest eruptions of the twentieth century and injected a 20-million ton – metric scale – sulfur dioxide cloud into the stratosphere at an altitude of more than 20 miles.”
The monstrous cloud of volcanic gases is believed to have cooled down surface temperatures on our planet for three years after the eruption.
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At the height of the volcanic impact, temperatures plummeted by as much as 1.3F degrees.
However, the USGS noted volcanic eruptions and their impact on climate change pale in comparison to human activity.
The USGS said: “While sulphur dioxide released in contemporary volcanic eruptions has occasionally caused detectable global cooling of the lower atmosphere, the carbon dioxide released in contemporary volcanic eruptions has never caused detectable global warming of the atmosphere.
“In 2015, In 2015, human activities were responsible for a projected 32.3 billion metric tons – gigatons – CO2 emissions.
“All studies to date of global volcanic carbon dioxide emissions indicate that present-day subaerial and submarine volcanoes release less than a percent of the carbon dioxide released currently by human activities.”
Studies of CO2 emissions from human activity have found humanity can release 10 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in just two-and-a-half hours.
For comparison, the devastating eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980, released the same amount of CO2 in nine hours.
The USGS said: “There continues to be efforts to reduce uncertainties and improve estimates of present-day global volcanic CO2 emissions, but there is little doubt among volcanic gas scientists that the anthropogenic CO2 emissions dwarf global volcanic CO2 emissions.”
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