I’m in Mississippi and we’re seeing record heat. I’ve read that the South Pacific volcano from January of 2022 may be part of the reason. How?
In: 155
I’m not a climatologist, but volcanic eruptions lead to lower temperatures see [little iceages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age_volcanism).
So if the south pacific volcano in Jan 2022 had any impact it would most likely be to lessen the heat.
The reason for the heat is really Human Caused Climate change, we are undeniably past the fuck around phase and decidedly in the find out phase, and it’s not going well for us.
There is some scientific evidence that shows the volcano may have a slight impact on warming, but you should not discount the overall effect of climate change as the main driver for record heat. Even prior to that volcanic eruption, we were seeing increased record heat temps year after year. A good example from where I am living in the Pacific Northwest is the record breaking 118° temperatures in June of 2021.
So, human driven climate change is basically all about humans taking Carbon bound up underground and releasing it into the air, right? Well, natural processes can do that, too, and the biggest one is volcanoes.
Volcanoes take stuff stored underground and throw it up high into the atmosphere. Depending on what it is and how much, individual eruptions can affect the climate in the short term by quite a bit.
The volcano you’re talking about was underwater and released a ton of super heated steam into the atmosphere. water vapor is a very strong, but short lived, greenhouse gas. All that extra water vapor could be a contributing factor to a warm year this year.
The volcano in the south pacific caused an increase in carbon output and a large amount of water vapor… water vapor is very much a greenhouse gas. Both factors were a rapid increase for both elements in the atmosphere.
Volcanos usually have a mitigating factor for both of these in particulates going up that reflect sunlight higher in the atmosphere. This one had a relatively low amount of that.
Timing wise, we’re on a high end of a natural heat cycle… then add in human activity… then add on a spike from a particularly impactful volcano.
tl;dr; Worst type of Volcano for global temperatures happened in an already expected hot year… before even getting into human effect.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-low-sulphur-shipping-rules-are-affecting-global-warming/
“SO2 has a strong cooling effect on the climate, both through directly reflecting incoming sunlight and by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. This increases the formation of reflective clouds.
Given the strong cooling impact of SO2, a 10% reduction in emissions of SO2 will result in additional global warming. “
We’re pushing the climate to its limit with CO2 emissions. Add a couple more negative conditions to the mix – El Nino, a volcano- and you must expect more extreme weather. In your case it’s a heat wave, in California’s case it’s a [hurricane.](https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194588117/hilary-could-be-the-first-tropical-storm-to-hit-california-in-more-than-80-years)
One thing we can be fairly certain of is that things will get worse before they get better.
The Tonga Eruption was a massive eruption of an underwater volcano visible from space that sent a tsunami around the globe. Scientists estimated that this eruption added an additional 5%-10% more water (vapor) to the atmosphere in January 2022.
Water vapor is our planet’s most prevalent greenhouse gas. It’s generally not discussed in the conversation of human caused climate change because we produce way more ‘unnatural’ CO2 than we introduce ‘unnatural’ water vapor to the atmosphere.
When an event like an eruption adds an additional 5%-10% more water vapor to the atmosphere, it is going to have an increasing impact on the greenhouse effect. Meaning, less of the suns energy is able to be reflected back into space and as a result of this our climate warms. This is the same mechanism by which our CO2 emissions warm the planet.
I’m no meteorologist but I’d wager that this is currently impacting weather patterns across the globe and will continue to do so until the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere stabilizes to pre-eruption levels.
[removed]
Large volcanic eruptions tend to cause global cooling by pumping sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere where they help form a reflective aerosol layer that reflects some sunlight back into space.
Some famous examples of sudden cold spells following eruptions were caused by Laki in Iceland in 1783-4; Tambora in Indonesia in 1815; Krakatau (Indonesia again) in 1883; Agung (would you believe it – Indonesia) in 1963-4 and Pinatubo in Indon – only kidding – it was the Philippines in 1991.
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption was colossal, and could well have had the largest impact on the atmosphere since Krakatau. However, for reasons we don’t fully understand yet, it doesn’t seem to have produced relatively small amounts of stratospheric sulfur. But, because it was an underwater eruption, the huge plume that reached over 55km tall, put a lot of water vapour into the atmosphere. As others have pointed out, water vapour, particularly at altitude serves as a greenhouse gas, so it could have contributed to this summer’s hot weather in much of the Northern Hemisphere (apart from here in the UK where it has been dismal).
However, there are other forces at work, not least that the Eastern Pacific is going through an El Niño event where abnormally warm water drives high temperatures across the globe. And that is added to our own catastrophic carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels which are pushing global temperatures relentlessly upward.
Do a little research on underwater Thermal activities in the past year, and ocean temps. Will make you question the Narrative, and what you hear on the news every day.
Latest Answers