You can blame climate change for a lot, but not for spoiling your European vacation.
Global warming probably did not cause the volcanic eruption beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which has disrupted global aviation and grounded travelers on multiple continents over the past few days--but many scientists believe global warming will trigger future volcanic eruptions in Iceland and throughout the polar regions.
Ice is heavy and exerts enormous pressure on whatever lies beneath it. Under glaciers and other thick ice formations, the pressure is often enough to limit geologic movement, or even to restrict the formation of magma by leaving too little room for superheated rock to expand and turn to liquid. When glacial ice melts, the pressure underneath is reduced, allowing the surface of the Earth to push free of its constraints, a release of energy that sometimes causes earthquakes, tsunamis or volcanic eruptions.
The Icelandic volcano that is currently spewing ash into the atmosphere is located under a small and lightweight ice cap, as ice caps go, so scientists are pretty certain than melting ice did not trigger the eruption.
Size also matters in the question of whether ash from the volcano in Iceland will be enough to slow global warming by creating a kind of reflector shield in the stratosphere to block some of the sun's rays and prevent them from reaching the Earth's surface. Again, the relatively small size of the volcano and the eruption leads scientists to believe that the world will go on warming with no cooling effect from Iceland's geology.
The poet Robert Frost wrote, "Some say the world will end in fire/some say in ice," and then went on to offer his own views on the subject. From what scientists are starting to learn about the relationship between climate change, glacial ice and volcanoes, we may get plenty of both before we're through.
Photo courtesy of NASA
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we are told the volcanic eruption is not due to global warming i believe even if it was the goverment would never own up to this as we are told global warming is an effect caused by humans and we can stop or slow it down so in this case it is our fault and our fault alone now if as they say it is an act of god no one can claim any compensation whatsover saving the goverment millions upon millions so it would never be put down to global warming even if this was the cause of this or any other volcanic disaster
Published scientists who have studied the history of global warming indicate that in every instance the GW events do cause volcanic activity, and this specific eruption was predicted by one such scientist.
Good job on placing a factual base under a subject that could be hyped. See also scientific analysis in the Watts up website http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/16/reply-to-ice-cap-thaw-may-awaken-icelandic-volcanoes/#more-18562.
So sad – “Telemann … April 20, 2010 at 1:18 pm” and the “Al Bore”s;
Repeating others’ bogus corporate information, the 20-Watts and other units in the Skeptic Tank fail to predict anything to prove any claimed expertise in anything but PayPal. It is hard to lie about AGW volcanoes and earthquakes as such predictions are impossible for geologists. For example, I do show some claimed global warming expertise with 5 correct predictions (23%) in the following blog for both region and strength out of 22 quakes predicted under 4/4 – 10/10.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/04/78-quake-hits-indonesian-island-of-sumatra/1
NO, not global warming – global cooling.
There have been virtually no sunspots for 2 years and the solar physicists at NOAA (Hathaway April 2010) admit their “solar forcing” model is flawed.
Their model in the 1990’s predicted global warming due to an INCREASE in sunspots starting in 2008.
The opposite of warming due to sunspots is cooling when there are none.
So, the Earth is cooling and as it cools stress is put on all the tectonic plates – and voila!
More earthquakes (China 2008), tsunamis (2004), volcanoes (Chile 2006), Iceland (2010) ……
Rex Grout B.Sc Dip Ed
April 2010
Re Robert’s rave.
I don’t watch Fox News and I have never heard of the other websites either.
In May last year I sent an email to Mr Hathaway (NOAA) suggesting that his sunspot cycle model was flawed as to many sunspots were outside the Sig 1 error. A few days later the international panel responsible for sunspots revised down their prediction for a very large 24th Cycle.
For further details, see their SOHO (solar watch) website.
I have a pure maths degree and I am retired engineer and teacher.
My political antennae are very sensitive to Conceptual Rationalisation And Projection by people trying to make money out of the poor, old and sick.
Nuclear power instead of coal-fired power stations is a no brainer. They both produce just as much heat as each other and lots of the biggest greenhouse gas – “water vapour” as part of the cooling cycle. (Nuclear is actually lless efficient and produces more heat than coal stations).
I have also worked in power stations and I know what goes wrong.
Nuclear power operators are not nuclear physicists and the programmers programming the control systems would have doctorates.
I programmed a steel mill once. the major difference between a steel mill and a nuclear power plant is insurance – you can’t get insurance on a nuclear power station!
The US private sector nuclear power industry was a necessary evil in the 1960’s and 1970’s to subsidise the nuclear weapons industry. It died in the mid- 1980s’.
When a scientist tells me that his model can run fowards from 1600 predicts the mini-ice age between 1615 to 1675 and the one at the end of the 19th century (yes, the Titanic sank because unusual global cooling sent one two many icebergs south!), I will support a reduction in CO2, provided someone puts a cap on Indonesian and Brazilian forest butrn offs.
Cheers
Rex Grout B.Sc B.Eng (Elect) Dip Ed.
I am not affilated to any politicial organisation or organisation linked to making money out of the misfortune of others.
Re Robert’s rave.
I don’t watch Fox News and I have never heard of the other websites either.
In May last year I sent an email to Mr Hathaway (NOAA) suggesting that his sunspot cycle model was flawed as to many sunspots were outside the Sig 1 error. A few days later the international panel responsible for sunspots revised down their prediction for a very large 24th Cycle.
For further details, see their SOHO (solar watch) website.
I have a pure maths degree and I am retired engineer and teacher.
My political antennae are very sensitive to Conceptual Rationalisation And Projection by people trying to make money out of the poor, old and sick.
Nuclear power instead of coal-fired power stations is a no brainer. They both produce just as much heat as each other and lots of the biggest greenhouse gas – “water vapour” as part of the cooling cycle. (Nuclear is actually less efficient and produces more heat than coal stations).
I have also worked in power stations and I know what goes wrong.
Nuclear power operators are not nuclear physicists and the programmers programming the control systems would have doctorates.
I programmed a steel mill once. The major difference between a steel mill and a nuclear power plant is insurance – you can’t get insurance on a nuclear power station!
The US private sector nuclear power industry was a necessary evil in the 1960’s and 1970’s to subsidise the nuclear weapons industry. It died in the mid- 1980s’.
When a scientist tells me that his model can run forwards from 1600 predicts the mini-ice age between 1615 to 1675 and the one at the end of the 19th century (yes, the Titanic sank because unusual global cooling sent one two many icebergs south!), I will support a reduction in CO2, provided someone puts a cap on Indonesian and Brazilian forest burn offs.
Cheers
Rex Grout B.Sc B.Eng (Elect) Dip Ed.
I am not affiliated to any political organisation or organisation linked to making money out of the misfortune of others.
I think it has to do with the world economy.
We build to many things that are harmful to our enviroment. The government is to blame for it.
No,James May did.