How much of Global Warming is down to the heat given off by volcanoes?

Question

I was reading about rock dust being used in Permaculture, it made me wonder how much is global warming down to the heat given off by volcanoes?

Answer 1

None, or nearly so. The key to understanding global warming is that it refers to change in temperature. For volcanos to be contributing to the change, the average level of volcanic activity over recent dacades would have had to change--and it hasn't.

Answer 2

My home is on the Island of Hawaii, an active Volcano. I've spent a fair amount of time around eruptions and such, and they are just a wondeful, majestic part of the living planet.

The global warming problem, as I understanding it, isn't with the fact that things like volcanoes create heat . . . the problem is that the increased levels of CO2 that we're dumping in the atmosphere are causing the planet to RETAIN more heat than we used to. An increasing amount of heat that would have historically radiated away from the planet is being retained because of the excess CO2, causing the planet to warm, the ice to melt, etc.

Volcanoes can cause a fair amount of temporary atmospheric disruption. Back home we have what we call "Vog" days -- kinda like smog, only created by volcanic ash and dust when atmospheric conditions are just right. Normally the trade winds and the ocean just sorta combine to scrub the air and all is well.

Answer 3

The most important ways that the people can combat global warming is getting rid of their older model cars (1979 Buick) because, older cars emmitt more toxic fumes into the air. Its obvious that the more technological advanced a car is, the less harmful gases it emmitts. A car that was built 3 or 4 years ago will be more economy friendly than a car that was assembled 35 years ago. For high populated cities such as New York, Bus and Taxi companys should replace current vehicles with cars that are powered by hydrogen or electricity. Just think, if every major city used the Toyota Prius as taxi's, there would be a decreased level of pollution, and also taxi fares could be drastically lower as well.

Answer 4

It's possible that certain gasses given off by volcanoes may contribute to GW, however, some gasses actually reflect sunlight, as does dust in the atmosphere after an eruption.
This is what happened after Krakatoa, cooler weather around the world for few years afterward, due to increased dust.
This has been well documented, and there are many suggestions this type of thing has occurred in human history before, nee; Thera blast.(Santorini).
Keeping this in mind, volcanoes are the origin of our water and atmosphere, including CO2.

Answer 5

well, the Idea of global warming is the risk of co2 damage to the earth's environment.

volcanoes helped create our atmosphere.

the idea of going off of a couple degrees is a little out there. earth might still be warming up after the ice age.

the real problem is the ozone layer depleting. a CO2 problem.

that may be the human damage.

earth goes through natural changes, and temperature is one of them. in fact, the north and south poles are several million years overdue. they were supposed to switch magnetism.


but in general, saying the volcanoes contrubute unusually to global warming is like saying the plants are destroying the ozone layer. the part we're worried about is the man-made part. nature has had plants and volcanoes for a long time, yet the ozone layer was still made (via lightning), and the ice age still happened.

Answer 6

Volcanoes should be respected. If it weren't for a volcano you would be in water right now. Our planet constantly recycles itself. The tectonic plates on the earth always move and push matter under themselves to the core, volcanoes erupt later on creating more land and giving off gases this planet needs. The heat from global warming is coming from the sun.

Answer 7

Directly, very little; indirectly, perhaps quite a bit. Let me explain.

The heat given off by molten lava is relatively small. Yes, it's nasty of you get right up close and personal with it, but if you live say, a few miles away from the eruption and it doesn't bury your home, the climate effects of the heat from the lava aren't going to last more than a short time.

Of greater concern are the gasses, ashes, dust and radioactive particles. Radioactive particles in volcanic lava? I hear you say. Yes. It's generally understood that one of the things that keeps Earth's core hot and molten is the heat of radioactive decay. The lava from volcanoes does not come all the way from the core, but there is a greater abundance of radioactive elements down there than at the surface. So proportionatly, molten lava coming up from volcanoes does contain more radioactive elements than rocks at the earth's surface.

The other things to be concerned about are the ashes and dust and gasses. Ashes settle out of the atmosphere relatively quickly. Go to your local library and you should be able to find National Geographic magazine for the year following the Mt. Saint Helens eruption. They have a two page photo spread which is very informative.

The left side shows a scene one week after the eruption and it looks like the sufrace of the moon. Everything is cold grey ashes, with little craters (ponds) and dead tree trunks sticking out. It looks like nothing would ever live there again.

But on the right side, you see the exact same spot, one year later. You can tell it is the same spot because the same ponds and tree trunks are there, everything matches. But now, everything is green and growing. They say the heat of the ashes burned away dead leaves and underbrush which prevented the sunlight from reaching the forest floor, and caused long-buried seeds to germinate. Also, as rain soaks through the ashes, minerals dissolve out of them which fertilize the soil.

So this tells us that even a volcanic eruption can't kill all life in its immediate vicinity and that plants will grow back. It is part of the natural cycle.

The dust is a little more problematic. It is lighter than the ashes and floats around in the air longer. Look up the Year Without a Summer, that was a couple hundred years ago, and it was the year following one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in history. They say that sunsets around the world were spectacular for that year, due to the dust floating in the atmosphere.

But the strange thing is, the weather didn't get warmer. It got colder. There was snow every month in the US that year, including July and August! The dust in the upper atmosphere was reflecting a lot of the sunlight back into space, so the planet was colder.

And then in a few years things were back to normal. It was like throwing an extra ice cube into a glass of soda... there were ripples, and then they settled down and then things were back to normal.

What about the greenhouse gasses? They don't settle out of the air that easily. Each large volcanic eruption (like Mt. Saint Helens) put far more greenhouse gasses into the air each time than everything that we have done since we started rubbing sticks together! That's right. Volcanoes put more greenhouse gasses into the air than all of our industries, cars, forest fires and pollution combined. And we get major volcanic eruptions three or four times a century, and we have been getting them ever since the planet was made.

It is not that the volcanoes give off so much heat, but that their by products may trap heat. As you can see, there is somewhat of a balancing effect between the dust (which tends to reflect sunlight and cool the planet) and the gasses, which tend to hold heat and thus warm the planet. Then you get plant life all over the world (including plankton in the oceans which is far more abundant than any land plants) absorbing carbon dioxide, so that tends to cool the planet.

It is a balancing act. It never stands still. It is constantly in motion, going up or down. Have you ever watched a balancing act on stage or at a circus? It looks like the clown is going to drop the pile of dishes, and he has to run as fast as he can to get back under the center of gravity. But if he runs too fast, he might trip over those big feet of his! And everybody says "Ooooh!" And "Ahhh!" But there is not really any danger that he will drop them, because it is all practiced and it is made to look that way to be more entertaining.

So, while we shouldn't crap up the place where we're living, it is a relief to know that we can't destroy the planet completely, like some people are afraid.

One last thing I want to mention. Volcanoes put more ashes, dust, greenhouse gasses and radioactive particles into the air than anything we do. Search on the Trinity site in Alamagordo NM. That is where the first atomic bomb test was done. It fused a hundred yard circle of sand into glass and the crater was very deep.

You would have thought that nothing would ever live there again; that it would be dead forever. But twenty five years after the test, the noted author Roger Zelazny reported that the winds had filled in the glass dish with sand and that there were cactus and sagebrush and tumbleweed and lizards and snakes and rats living there, just like before. They weren't mutated. The radiation was only a little bit above background level anywhere else.

He concluded by saying that the planet would survive. I think so too. I don't think we need to worry about global warming, due to volcanoes or anything else.

4 OCT 07, 1700 hrs, GMT.

Answer 8

That is not an easy question to answer. In the deepest parts of the ocean along plate boundaries, ridges and rifts; the Earths crust is very thin. There are numerous volcanic vents observed with a biologic system completely independent of photosynthesis with water flowing out at huge rates approximately 700° Fahrenheit. There could be millions of these, they most certainly contribute heat to the oceans, the fact is we know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the deep oceanic seafloor system. Anyone who attempts to answer this question with any certainty is an absolute fraud as an objective scientists. Every continent on Earth including the sea floor is floating on an ocean of super heated liquid rock, which in turn is floating a ocean of super heated liquid metal.

Very good question, I wish I knew the answer.
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Answer 9

Not much considering the fact that most volcanoes are located at the center of the earth, toward the equator. The highest factor contributing to the increase of global warming, is mans ignorance toward the conservation of the worlds forests. It is because of the destruction of the worlds forests that the earth suffers from excessive carbon dioxide pollution.

Answer 10

Not much at this time