They’re pretty cool to watch, though.DLNR CLOSES MAUNA LOA ACCESS ON THE EAST SIDE “I tell students (shield volcanoes) don’t go boom. Mauna Loa is a lava-oozing shield volcano, Munoz says. The Hawaiian volcano’s activity has affected climate change in one way, by disrupting key equipment used to measure carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, according to media sites such as CNN.īut its eruption for the first time in 38 years is in essence an Earth-building, not atmosphere-impacting, event, Munoz and Douglass say. “It may cause a minor increase in volcanic eruptions, but I can’t imagine that’s going to be a big driver.”Īs far as Mauna Loa is concerned, it’s not the type of volcano that causes massive, nuclear-like explosions with towering mushroom clouds that send materials into the stratosphere, potentially creating cooling, umbrella-like effects, Douglass and Munoz say. “I don’t think the glaciers are melting that fast,” Douglass says. “As they get into shallower depths, the pressure on the material goes down and (that) allows the rocks to melt and turn into magma,” he says. “The thought process is that if you melt all the glaciers of Iceland, that would decrease pressure” on rocks being brought to the surface from deep inside the earth, Douglass says. Would it have been possible to predict the New Zealand volcano eruption? read moreīut what about climate change’s impact on volcanoes?Ī research paper published in 2013 raised the issue of whether glacial melt was contributing to volcanic activity in Iceland. Think back to 70 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and “there was a lot of volcanism,” he says. Volcanoes do contribute some carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but there would have to be a lot of tectonic activity to even come close to greenhouse gas levels emitted by human activity, Munoz says. “The moment you stop emitting sulfur dioxide, the climate will very quickly warm.” Plus, the cooling effect doesn’t last long, he says. “There’s this kind of geopolitical question that would come up about control of that-who puts their finger on the thermostat, essentially,” says Munoz, an assistant professor and expert in hydrology. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern Universityīut it is a genie many scientists say should remain in the test tube bottle.įor one, sulfur dioxide “is the same stuff that causes acid rain,” Douglass says.Īnd secondly, “there’s some climate modeling that suggests that (the exercise) might decrease the amount of rains that come to India during the monsoon season,” which could impact crop productivity, he says. Daniel Douglass, Associate Teaching Professor, Marine and Environmental Sciences. “They create clouds where there would not otherwise have been clouds,” Douglass says. “If it’s a really big eruption, that cooling effect can last for a year,” Munoz says. “That effect is actually a cooling effect,” he says. Major volcanic explosions have created this effect naturally by shooting giant plumes of ash and sulfuric acid into the atmosphere, where the latter forms aerosol particles or little droplets that reflect sunlight away from the earth’s surface, Munoz says. “The sunlight bounces back into space,” Douglass says. The idea is to create a sort of umbrella over the earth that would block solar radiation from reaching the ground. “A bunch of other people say that seems really dangerous.” “People do say this is something we should research and think about,” says Douglass, an associate professor of geology. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University Samuel Munoz, Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine & Environmental Sciences with a cross-appointment in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. The effect is so pronounced that some scientists want humans to duplicate the effect through geoengineering but Douglass and Munoz say that scenario is nowhere near reality at this time. While a study of Iceland proposes a possible link, scientists at Northeastern University say the effect of volcanic activity on global warming is minimal.ĭaniel Douglass and Samuel Munoz of Northeastern’s Marine Science Center and Coastal Sustainability Institute say the impact operates in reverse: major explosions of volcanoes in the past have decreased global temperatures by a degree or two for months. Is there a connection between climate change and volcanic eruptions? The eruption of Mauna Loa for the first time in 40 years on the Big Island of Hawaii follows a summer and fall that saw record-high temperatures around the world.
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