Volcanic activity can cool atmosphere
Volcanic activity across the planet appeared to be intensifying from 1998 to 2002, but there hasn’t been much activity in the past five years or so, until the latest Colombian outbreak.
On April 16 and 17, the Nevado del Huila volcano in Colombia erupted, prompting evacuations and causing significant damage. The eruption sent an avalanche of rocks down the side of the volcano into the Paez and Simbola rivers. Major flooding resulted as bridges were swept away and a major highway was destroyed. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but thousands of people were evacuated.
Although forecasting a major volcanic eruption is not yet a reality, much progress has been made. It seems that eruptions tend to come in bunches, as may be the case with the current eruptions in Colombia. Many explosions are often preceded by earthquakes, a swelling of the ground, the formation of cracks and the release of gases. There are also thermal and infrared sensors in satellites to help detect the hot spots. Also, regions of warmer than normal sea-surface temperatures may also suggest a substantial increase in underwater volcanic activity.
If we were to see several major eruptions within a short period of time, it’s possible that Earth would be cooled by at least 1 to 3 degrees as all the dust and ash spewed into the upper atmosphere would partly shield the sun’s rays and greatly disrupt worldwide weather patterns.
Temperatures did cool rather dramatically during the infamous “Year without a Summer” in 1816, following the major eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, which, by the way, put an incredible eight times more volcanic material into the upper atmosphere than the recent strong eruption in June of 1991 of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.
New England’s historians refer to 1816 as “Eighteen-Hundred and Froze to Death.” Snow fell every month in 1816 at the higher elevations in the interior Northeast while freezes blackened crops that summer in the valleys of northeastern New York, interior New England and much of southeastern Canada.
There has been concern over the huge super volcano in Yellowstone National Park. Although a huge eruption there would throw the Earth into a nuclear winter almost immediately, a major explosion is not expected for at least thousands of years, but who knows for sure?
As CNN pointed out earlier this year, oxygen levels fell off sharply about 150 to 275 million years ago. In fact, the levels of oxygen at that time on our planet’s surface would be comparable to amount of oxygen at 14,000 feet today. In other words, not much breathable air. Carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid levels, again due to huge amounts of volcanic activity, were at least 100 times higher than today.
I believe that we’re still in the midst of a long-term 500-year cycle, or even a 1,000-year cycle of wide climatic extremes, as we continue to see record heat, record cold, record snows, record drought, etc., throughout most of the world. If we were to see a major volcanic eruption, this could perhaps extend our long-term cycle, or possibly send global temperatures down.
As far as our local weather is concerned, I don’t see any big storms arriving until sometime in early to mid-May. Until then, we’ll continue to see a rather nice weather pattern of sun and showers along with mild to warm temperatures.
The mid-May through mid-June period still appears to me to be potentially the wettest part of the spring of 2007. There should be several thunderstorms crossing our region at this time. Torrential downpours may produce scattered lowland flooding, particularly in some of the same areas affected in the past few years on a regular basis due to the combination of warm spring rains and increased mountain snowpack runoff.