Volcanoes

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Volcanoes Climate
Science Concepts SO2 Effect
Volcanic Activity Effect on Climate Mt.
Pinatubo
The Earth System (Kump, Kastin Crane) Chap.
15 (pp. 299-302)
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The Earths Climate System
Physical Climate Systems
Climate Change
Atmospheric Physics/Dynamics
Sun
Ocean Dynamics
Terrestrial Energy/Moisture
Human Activities
Stratospheric Chemistry/Dynamics
External Forcing
Human Forcing
Soil
CO2
Global Moisture
Land Use
Marine/ Biogeochemistry
Terrestrial Ecosystems
Volcanoes
CO2
Tropospheric Chemistry
Pollu- tants
Biogeochemical Systems
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Volcanoes Climate
Ben Franklin Observation Benjamin Franklin
was serving the United States as an ambassador to
France and living in Paris when Laki volcano in
Iceland erupted During several of the summer
months of the year 1783, when the effect of the
suns rays to heat the earth in these northern
regions should have been greatest, there existed
a constant fog over all Europe, and great part of
North America. This fog was of a permanent
nature it was dry, and the rays of the sun
seemed to have little effect towards dissipating
it, as they easily do a moist fog, arising from
water. They were indeed rendered so faint in
passing through it, that when collected in the
focus of a burning glass, they would scarce
kindle brown paper. Of course, their summer
effect in heating the earth was exceedingly
diminished. Hence the earth was early
frozen, Hence the first snows remained on it
unmelted, and received continual
additions. Hence the air was more chilled, and
the winds more severely cold. Hence perhaps the
winter of 1783-4, was more severe, than any that
had happened for many years.
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Volcanoes Climate
Ben Franklin Observation (Cont) The cause of
this universal fog is not yet ascertained.
Whether it was adventitious to this earth, and
merely a smoke, proceeding from the consumption
by fire of some of those great burning balls or
globes which we happen to meet within our rapid
course round the sun, and which are sometimes
seen to kindle and be destroyed in passing our
atmosphere, and whose smoke might be attracted
and retained by our earth or whether it was the
vast quantity of smoke, long continuing to issue
during the summer from Hecla in Iceland, and that
other volcano which arose out of the sea near
that island, which smoke might be spread by
various winds, over the northern part of the
world, is yet uncertain.
Franklin, B., Meteorological imaginations and
conjectures, Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society Memoirs and Proceedings, 2,
122, 1784. Reprinted in Weatherwise, 35,
p. 262, 1982.
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Volcanoes Climate
National Public Radio story - How a Volcano
Eruption Wiped Away Summer by Michael Sullivan
10/22/07 http//www.npr.org/templates/story/story
.php?storyId15448607 Darkness By Lord
Byron I had a dream, which was not all a
dream. The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the
stars Did wander darkling in the eternal
space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy
earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless
air Morn came and wentand came, and brought no
day, And men forgot their passions in the
dread Of this their desolation and all
hearts Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for
light And they did live by watchfiresand the
thrones, The palaces of crowned kingsthe huts,.
. . Written summer of 1816 when Percy Bysshe
Shelley, his wife Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
(wrote novel Frankenstein), and their friend
Lord Byron went to Lake Geneva, Switzerland for
their summer holiday. Tambora in Indonesia
erupted in 1815 and produced the Year Without a
Summer (1816)
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Volcanoes Climate
1960-1995 Volcanic Activity Red triangles
indicate volcanoes
http//svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a000100/a0001
55/index.html
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Volcanoes Climate
Volcanic Global Cooling Volcanoes eject sulfur
dioxide (SO2) and other gases during eruptions
SO2 combines and H2O in the stratosphere to
form fine droplets or aerosols of sulfuric
acid (H2SO4) that form a haze Haze increases
the atmospheric albedo, thus reducing the solar
energy reaching the Earths surface Example
- Mt Tambora in Indonesia (1815) - 1816 -
Year without a summer - June snows frost
in July and August in the northeast - New
England temperatures cooler than normal
2-4C in July 1-2C in August - Caused
80 reduction in harvest
http//www-sage3.larc.nasa.gov/solar/learning-aero
sol.html
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Tree-Ring Width Vs Year of Eruption Growth
index for the 24 largest volcanoesTempera
ture Vs Year of Eruption Composite global
surface temperature change near the time of
the five volcanoes producing the greatest
optical depths since 1880 Krakatau (1883),
Santa Maria (1902), Agung (1963), El Chichon
(1982) and Pinatubo (1991)
Volcanoes Climate
http//www.giss.nasa.gov/research/intro/hansen_02/
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Volcanoes Climate
Estimated Effects of Volcanoes Volcano Latitude
Date DT (C) St. Helens 46N 1980 S 1963 6S 1883 0.3 Tambora 8S 1815 0.5 Toba 3N 7,00
0 B.P. large? Laki 64N 1783-84 1.0? Roza 47N 4
,000 B.P. large?
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Mt. Pinatubo
Erupted 9 June 1991 After Several Hundred Years
of Inactivity Description - Location
Philippines - Latitude 15.13 N, Longitude
120.35 E - Height 1,745 meters before June 15,
1991 eruption - Height 1,485 meters
(high point caldera rim) after eruption - Seco
nd in size to eruption of Katmai, Alaska (1912)
- Ten times larger than Mt St. Helens eruption
in 1980 - Ash cloud rose 30- 35 km into the sky
http//vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/ Philippines/P
inatubo/ images.html
http//www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/usgs/maps.cfmphilip
pines
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Mt. Pinatubo
Mt. Pintatubo Eruption - June 1991
http//hannover.park.org/Philippines/pinatubo/
http//vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Philippines/Pi
natubo/images.html
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Mt. Pinatubo
Mt. Pintatubo Ash at Clark Air Force Base
Spread of Mt. Pintatubo Ash and Gases
http//vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/ Philippines/P
inatubo/images.html
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Mt. Pinatubo
Nimbus-7 Sulfur Dioxide
June 17
June 19
http//eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_edu.pack/p35.html
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Mt. Pinatubo
Nimbus-7Sulfur Dioxide June 16June 19June
22June 25
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Mt. Pinatubo
SAGE II 1020 ?m Stratospheric Optical Depth 15
Apr- 25 May 199114 Jun- 26 Jul
199113 Feb- 26 Mar 1993
http//www-sage2.larc.nasa.gov/introduction/
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Volcanoes Climate
Volcanic Eruptions Atmospheric SO2
detected by TOMS per volcano since 1979
http//rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect16/Sect16_2.html
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Volcanoes Climate
SAGE II1020 ?mStrato-sphericOpticalDepth
http//www-sage2.larc.nasa.gov/introduction/