Scientists Suggest Simulated Volcanic Eruptions Could Stem Global Warming

Scientists believe that simulating the effects of a volcanic eruption could help cool the planet, halting global warming. Fenton/AP

From The New York Daily News:

A group of scientists have a plan to save the planet - volcanoes!

Simulated volcanoes, to be precise.

The idea, detailed by a trio of environmental scientists in an editorial for the journal, Nature, would potentially be cheaper than forcing industries to cut carbon emissions.

"Many scientists have argued against research on solar radiation management," write David Keith of the University of Calgary in Canada, Edward Parson of the University of Michigan and Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University.

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The Volcano Tourists: Mayon Threatens To Erupt... But Officials Stunned As Snap-Happy Visitors Defy Ban To See The Eruption

Lethal: Lava cascades down the Mount Mayon volcano in 2006

From The Daily Mail:

When a volcano erupts most people take to the hills and get as far away as possible.

But officials in the Philippines have expressed their amazement at the stupidity of tourists who are flocking in their thousands to fields around a dangerous volcano so they can photograph its spectacular lava flows.

Scientists say that Mount Mayon volcano is on the brink of erupting and anyone within a five-mile radius would probably be killed by lava raining down on them if it did.

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Yellowstone's Plumbing Exposed

Image: Seismic imaging was used by University of Utah scientists to construct this 3-D picture of the Yellowstone hotspot plume of hot and molten rock that feeds the shallower magma chamber (not shown) beneath Yellowstone National Park, outlined in green at the surface, or top of the illustration. The Yellowstone caldera, or giant volcanic crater, is outlined in red. State boundaries are shown in black. The park, caldera and state boundaries also are projected to the bottom of the picture to better illustrate the plume's tilt. Researchers believe "blobs" of hot rock float off the top of the plume, then rise to recharge the magma chamber located 3.7 miles to 10 miles beneath the surface at Yellowstone. The illustration also shows a region of warm rock extending southwest from near the top of the plume. It represents the eastern Snake River Plain, where the Yellowstone hotspot triggered numerous cataclysmic caldera eruptions before the plume started feeding Yellowstone 2.05 million years ago.

From E! Science News:

The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup. A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.

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Pictured: Fiery Bubbles Of Molten Lava Fill The Ocean In First Ever Images Of Deep-Sea Volcanic Eruption

Blast: A plume of sulphur and molten lava erupts from the West Mata Volcano nearly 4,000 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean, south of Samoa

From The Daily Mail:

Scientists have witnessed the eruption of a deep-sea volcano for the first time ever, capturing on video the fiery bubbles of molten lava as they exploded 4,000 feet beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Researchers are calling it a major geological discovery after a submersible robot witnessed the eruption during an underwater expedition in May near Samoa.

The high-definition videos were revealed yesterday at a geophysics conference in San Francisco.

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30,000 Flee Philippine volcano

Lava flows down the slopes of the Mayon volcano in the Philippines

From CNN:

(CNN) -- More than 30,000 people have fled their homes ahead of an expected eruption of the Mayon volcano in the central Philippines, the Red Cross said Wednesday.

Philippine authorities have said a large-scale eruption of the 2,464-meter (8,077-foot) peak is imminent, and have begun trying to evacuate about 50,000 people living around the nation's most active volcano.

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Undocumented Volcano Contributed to Extremely Cold Decade From 1810-1819

SDSU Professor Jihong Cole-Dai and his colleagues studied ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland and found evidence of a previously undocumented volcanic eruption exactly 200 years ago that contributed to the record cold decade of 1810-1819. (Credit: Image courtesy of South Dakota State University)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 7, 2009) — South Dakota State University researchers and their colleagues elsewhere in America and in France have found compelling evidence of a previously undocumented large volcanic eruption that occurred exactly 200 years ago, in 1809. The discovery helps explain the record cold decade from 1810-1819.

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Volcanic Blast's Devastation Confirmed By Pollen

New pollen and soil evidence suggests the eruption of Toba in Indonesia 73,000 years ago was so severe, the global environment was thrown into chaos. iStockPhoto

From Discovery News:

A massive volcanic explosion in Indonesia rocked the planet 73,000 years ago, cooling temperatures and devastating populations of our ancestors.

It takes a heck of a disaster to wipe the trees off of India. But 73,000 years ago, the titanic eruption of Toba in Indonesia did exactly that, according to a new study, brushing the region clean almost overnight as it kicked the planet into a cold snap that would persist for almost 2,000 years.

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Ancient Volcano's Devastating Effects Confirmed

This satellite image shows smoldering underground fires that took place at Toba in 1997. A devastating volcanic eruption occurred at the site roughly 73,000 years ago. Credit: NASA

From Live Science:

A massive volcanic eruption that occurred in the distant past killed off much of central India's forests and may have pushed humans to the brink of extinction, according to a new study that adds evidence to a controversial topic.

The Toba eruption, which took place on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia about 73,000 years ago, released an estimated 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere that blanketed the skies and blocked out sunlight for six years. In the aftermath, global temperatures dropped by as much as 16 degrees centigrade (28 degrees Fahrenheit) and life on Earth plunged deeper into an ice age that lasted around 1,800 years.

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Supervolcano Eruption In Sumatra Deforested India 73,000 Years Ago

Landsat satellite photo of Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia.
(Credit: Image courtesy of NASA / via Wikimedia Commons)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 24, 2009) — A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, researchers report.

The volcano ejected an estimated 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere, leaving a crater (now the world's largest volcanic lake) that is 100 kilometers long and 35 kilometers wide. Ash from the event has been found in India, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea.

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Will Drilling Into A Volcano Trigger An Eruption That Destroys Naples?

Debate Erupts in Geology Circles Geologist will drill seven boreholes in the caldera at Campi Flegrie in around Naples, Italy, in an attempt to better predict volcanic disasters like the one that destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79. Critics say the drilling could trigger that very volcanic disaster. Wiki Commons

From Popular Science:

Scientific research has helped humankind avoid or mitigate many of nature’s best attempts to send us to a violent end, but what do researchers do when the pursuit of research could trigger the very disaster from which science is trying to protect us? That’s the question facing geologists in Naples, Italy that will begin sinking seven four-kilometer bore holes into the Campi Flegrei caldera, the site of a “supercolossal” volcanic eruption 39,000 years ago.

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Equatorial Volcano Shows Signs Of Imminent Eruption

From Watts Up With That?

Colombia volcano rumbles back to life. The volcano is about 1.2 degrees north of the Equator.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Officials in southern Colombia have issued a code orange alert for the newly-active Galeras volcano which they said could erupt in a matter of days or weeks, according to the state-run Geological and Mining Institute.

Authorities said they are continuing to monitor the nearby Huila volcano, also on orange alert, where sizeable volcanic activity also has been detected in recent weeks.

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Volcanic Eruptions Caused Ancient Warming And Cooling

Photo courtesy of US Geological Survey; Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, August 10, 2002

From Live Science:

Volcanic eruptions were responsible for a deadly ice age 450 million years ago, as well as — in an ironic twist — a period of global warming that preceded it, a new study finds.

The finding underscores the importance of carbon in Earth's climate today, said study researcher Matthew Saltzman of Ohio State University.

The ancient ice age featured glaciers that covered the South Pole on top of the supercontinent of Gondwana (which would eventually break apart to form the present-day continents of the southern hemisphere). Two-thirds of all species perished in the frigid climate.

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Volcanoes Played Pivotal Role In Ancient Ice Age, Mass Extinction

Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered that volcanoes played a pivotal role in a deadly ice age that occurred nearly half a billion years ago. This photograph shows volcanic ash beds -- formed around 455 million years ago -- layered in the rock of the Nashville Dome area in central Tennessee. (Credit: Photo by Matthew Saltzman, courtesy of Ohio State University)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 26, 2009) — Researchers here have discovered the pivotal role that volcanoes played in a deadly ice age 450 million years ago.

Perhaps ironically, these volcanoes first caused global warming -- by releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

When they stopped erupting, Earth's climate was thrown off balance, and the ice age began.

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Controversial Study Suggests Vast Magma Pool Under Washington State

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON -- A vast pool of molten rock in the continental crust that underlies southwestern Washington state could supply magma to three active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains -- Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams -- according to a new study that's causing a stir among scientists.

The study, published Sunday in the magazine Nature Geoscience, concluded that the magma pool among the three mountains could be the "most widespread magma-bearing area of continental crust discovered so far."

Other scientists dismiss the existence of an underground vat of magma covering potentially hundreds of square miles as "farfetched" and "highly unlikely." Rather than magma heated to 1,300 to 1,400 degrees, some think it could be water.

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Suppose 21st Century Disasters Like 19th Century

Redoubt Volcano from the east, with a massive eruption plume produced by pyroclastic flows on April 21, 1990(photo by R. Clucas)

From Future Pundit:

We remember the 20th century because we've all lived in some part of it (unless of course a 9 year older is reading this) and seen lots of video about it. The century was well covered by modern media. We know less of the 19th century and some of its major natural events are not widely known.

As compared to the 19th century the 20th century was pretty calm from the standpoint of big natural changes. What I'm going to do with this post: Imagine that the 21st century turns out to be like the 19th century in terms of the severity of climate, volcanic, and other natural events.

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Rapidly Erupting Volcanoes Pose Major Risk

A huge cloud of ash spewed from the Chaiten volcano, some 1,300 km south of Santiago when it erupted in 2008. Credit: AFP

From Cosmos:

PARIS: Magma from a Chilean volcano shot through Earth's crust at around a metre per second, a speed highlighting the perils from so-called rhyolitic volcanoes, says a new study.

Volcanoes in this category provide some of Earth's most explosive events. They are characterised by a dome of hardened magma which covers their central vent and can blow with catastrophic force, often with scant warning.

They include Vesuvius, Krakatoa and Mount St. Helens - names that have gone down in history for inflicting loss of life and massive damage.

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Plumbing Of A Supervolcano Revealed

Geologist points to the edge of a boulder of reddish volcanic rock from the fossilized supervolcano in Sesia Valley, Italy. The volcanic rock is encased by a light-gray tuff, a relationship characteristic of deposits produced during caldera-forming, explosive eruptions. Credit: Silvano Sinigoi, Universita di Trieste

From Live Science:

The fossilized remains of a supervolcano that erupted some 280 million years ago in the Italian Alps are giving geologists a first-time glimpse at the deep "plumbing system" that brings molten rock from far underground to the Earth's surface.

James E. Quick of Southern Methodist University in Texas and his team discovered the "fossil," or extinct, supervolcano in the Alps' Sesia Valley two years ago, but they are just now reporting the results after careful study.

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Man-Made Volcanoes May Cool Earth

The Anak Krakatau volcano

From Times Online:

THE Royal Society is backing research into simulated volcanic eruptions, spraying millions of tons of dust into the air, in an attempt to stave off climate change.

The society will this week call for a global programme of studies into geo-engineering — the manipulation of the Earth’s climate to counteract global warming — as the world struggles to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It will suggest in a report that pouring sulphur-based particles into the upper atmosphere could be one of the few options available to humanity to keep the world cool.

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NASA Drops Probes Into Volatile Volcano

Mount St. Helens is one of the most active volcanoes in the United States. Credit: USGS

From Live Science:

High-tech sensor pods were recently air lifted into the mouth of a volcano to monitor hot spots and provide early warning if the peak starts to blow.

The sensors are part of a NASA project to study volcanoes from the inside.

On July 14 scientists lowered the pods into the mouth of Washington's Mount St. Helens, one of the most active volcanoes in the United States.

The project aims to improve our ability to predict impending eruptions, both on Earth and on other planets.

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Fiery Images As Killer Volcano That Claimed 36,000 Lives Stirs Once More

Ticking timebomb: Islanders thought they had avoided
another disaster after things went quiet last year

From The Telegraph:

An amateur photographer has captured new images of the re-awakening of the world's most famous volcano.

In a breathtaking series Marco Fulle, who specialises in shots of comets, has photographed the Anak Krakatoa against a backdrop of constellations such as the Big Dipper.

These stunning pictures show the latest activity during the rebirth of the infamous volcano which holds a long-standing record for causing the highest number of human deaths ever - a staggering 36,000 in 1883.

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