Climate Change and Volcanoes: A Hidden Connection
Scientists cautioned at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague that since climate change speeds up the melting of glaciers, hundreds of dormant subglacial volcanoes around the globe, particularly those in Antarctica, might suddenly become active. This might have led to frequent and powerful eruptions, they claimed. It is likely that volcanoes to explode under glaciers and ice sheets. These sub-glaciated peaks can be seen in areas around the world that are glaciated right now or were glaciated in the past, like Iceland, British Columbia, and Antarctica.
Antarctica — The World’s Largest Glaciovolcanic Region
Within a 5,000-kilometer-long area, from the sub-Antarctic South Sandwich Islands to East Antarctica, there are volcanoes all the way through the Antarctic Peninsula and Marie Byrd Land. This renders Antarctica the planet's biggest glaciovolcanic region. It's not a new theory that glaciers melting and volcanic eruptions are linked. In Iceland, locals have known about the association between the two since the 1970s. A study out in the journal Bulletin of Volcanology in 2022 stated that heavy rain and melting glaciers might trigger volcanoes to erupt more frequently and with greater force. " Our research suggests that such an incident might not only take place in Iceland, where more active volcanoes have been seen, but could also occur in Antarctica." "Parts of North America, New Zealand, and Russia, in addition to other continental regions, now need more scientific attention, "Pablo Mareno-Yaeger from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US said at the address in Prague.
The Mocho-Choshuenco Case Study: How Ice Triggers Eruptions
Moreno-Yaeger and his colleagues researched six volcanoes in the Chilean Andes and reached these results. One of the most deadly volcanoes in Chile's Southern Volcanic Zone, the Mocho-Choshuenco volcanoes, is now silent. The research group used tools for dating to gain insight into eruptions and studied crystals in rocks that were recently out to in order to find how the weight and pressure of glacial ice alter the way magma underground interacts. Their findings revealed that when the last ice age was at its peak, between 26,000 and 18,000 years ago, a dense covering of ice enveloped the Earth and slowed down the frequency of eruptions. This let a huge reservoir of silica magma grow up to 10-15 km beneath the surface. But when the ice age ended and the glaciers moved right back to the area they came from, the Earth suddenly lost weight. This caused the crust to relax and the gases in the magma to expand. The researchers believe that this buildup of pressure led the deep reservoir to erupt in explosive forms, and this is what formed the volcano.
How Pressure Changes Deep Underground Stir Magma
"The volume of eruptions from the volcanoes beneath glaciers is prone to be slowed down." But due to climate change, the glaciers are melting, and our analysis reveals that these volcanoes are erupting at greater rates and with greater intensity. "Having very thick glaciers cover over a magma chamber early on is essential for increased pressure, which is taking place currently in places like Antarctica," Moreno-Yaeger stated. The 2022 research states that high magma emission can occur when glaciers melt fast. Magma remains in position as ice sets stress on the Earth's surface. But when the ice melts, the pressure decreases, causing the magma to rise to the surface. "The glacier is pushing the crust down into the mantle, " he stated. "The crust slowly 'floats' upwards again when the weight of the ice is pushed," Jamie Farquharson, co-author of the study and research engineer at the Université de Strasbourg, France, told Down to Earth in the past. "This looks like holding a rubber duck in water." He further stated that the duck bobs back up when it is let go.
Could This Lead to More Global Warming in the Long Run?
They were correct, yet this is a slow process that could require hundreds of years to complete. This makes it appear like early warning could still be doable. When it comes to how explosions from volcanoes impact the climate, the experts stated that in the short term, eruptions release airborne particles, made up of tiny particles in gases that can temporarily cool the Earth. For more than a year following the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991, the average temperature around the world in the Northern Hemisphere decreased by just over 0.5°C. However, once there are more eruptions, these effects are anticipated to diminish. As greenhouse gases build up over time from multiple eruptions."This sets off a positive feedback loop in which melting glaciers trigger eruptions, which could then cause further melting and warming."
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