Has increased volcanic activity contributed to global warming?

Answer 1

Increased volcanic activity may actually cause global cooling, not global warming. Here is what one USGS publication says about Mt Pinatubo:
"The sulfur dioxide (SO2) in this cloud -- about 22 million tons -- combined with water to form droplets of sulfuric acid, blocking some of the sunlight from reaching the Earth and thereby cooling temperatures in some regions by as much as 0.5 degrees C"
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/VolcWeather/description_volcanoes_and_weather.html
However, NASA did a study that appeared to have opposite results, at least in some areas. Using a modeling approach here is what they found:
"By comparing the climate simulations from the Pinatubo eruption, with and without aerosols, the researchers found that the climate model calculated a general cooling of the global troposphere, but yielded a clear winter warming pattern of surface air temperature over Northern Hemisphere continents. The temperature of the tropical lower stratosphere increased by 4 Kelvin (4°C) because of aerosol absorption of terrestrial longwave and solar near-infrared radiation."
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Volcano/

In any case, volcanic activity is not believed to be increasing. To see an explanation and a linear regression chart go here:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/faq/index.cfm?faq=06

It is not true (contrary to what Flush says) that volcanoes emit more CO2 than human sources. The USGS makes this comparison:
"Human activities release more than 150 times the amount of CO2 emitted by volcanoes--the equivalent of nearly 17,000 additional volcanoes like Kilauea (Kilauea emits about 13.2 million tonnes/year)!"

Here are the actual numbers:
Humans: 24 billion tons per year
Volcanoes: 145-255 million tons per year
(Note the difference between MILLIONS and BILLIONS of tons)

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/VolGas/volgas.html

Answer 2

No, increased volcanic activity (if that is even true) has not been shown to contribute to global warming. In fact, it would do exactly the opposite. Large volcanic eruptions send a lot of pyroclastic materials into the atmosphere. These particles actually contribute to reflecting the suns rays back into space. It has been documented that whenever we have a huge eruption on this planet, surface temperatures actually drop for some time.

Answer 3

Not really, because there hasn't really been much increased volcanic activity. Human pollution is the greatest contributor to global warming, so much more so than anything else that just about any other factors are meaningless.

Answer 4

It doesent help the matter any.
But the volcanic activity isnt so bad that I would even say its more than 1% of it.
I think humanity has done a fine job of screwing up the planet.

Answer 5

international warming is a shown actuality. question is wheather human beings are inflicting it to advance at a swifter fee. That being mentioned, no longer the full planet is warming - this is basically the common international TEMP that has been becoming. via this we are in a place to nonetheless adventure checklist chilly temps via fact of issues like the milankovitch cycles (tilt / rotation / orbit of earth). There are a ton of alternative issues that circulate into influence right here to boot from melting ice caps to issues like jet streams and hi or low preassure zones. (which might influence that days temp in a undeniable area) so international warming isn't a contributing component to checklist chilly temps.

Answer 6

i believe it has. isnt that where most of the garbage emitted into the atmosphere comes from? one burp even....
when mt. pinatubo erupted and spewed pollutants and ash and it spread around the world, the amount that came out was a lot more than of all the so-called automobile pollution since the invention of the machine.

does there have to be increased activity, when only one will do it?

ask rush, if he says so, its true! (haha)

Answer 7

compared to the geologic timescale of things i dont think today could be categorized as a time period of higher than normal volcanic activity.

Answer 8

yes it is one of the factors, but not the major factor. the global wind currents, the depletion of the ozone layer are more dominating factors for global warming.