Volcanoes and Global Warming?

Question

I wrote a question about Yellowstone and GW effects and a lot of people said CO2 would be responsible for GW effects in the long term. On (whatever) show I was watching, the narrator specifically said that the dust cloud that formed immediately afterwards could not have been responsible for the unusual cold spell that lasted for a while. I used the abbreviation SO2 which is where a lot of respondants apparently thought I was refering to CO2. But, it does bring up the question why volcanoes supposedly submit so much CO2 if the Krakatoa one caused problems by emitting too much SO2?
(BTW, I am not trying to be rude but it does make me very doubtful about the statement that CO2 from volcanoes is part of GW.)

Answer 1

It depends on the particular eruption.

Mostly the dust emitted more than cancels out the greenhouse gases emitted, and so short term cooling is the result.

In a few cases, greenhouse gases may dominate and cause a very slight (probably unmeasurable) increase in warming.

Good stuff here:

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/climate_effects.html

"CLIMATE EFFECTS OF VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS"

which shows that volcanoes are not the source of significant amounts of greenhouse gases.

More data here:

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11638

Graph, upper right.

Answer 2

I wouldn't worry so much about volcanoes on the surface. Humans emit more Co2 than volcanoes on the surface do. Also like stated by others in here, usually a massive volcano eruption causes cooling and not warming. What you might worry about is the volcanic activity in the arctic circle. There volcanic activity in the arctic circle on the ocean floor that is way more eruptive than thought. This process can warm the ocean water and allow for more Co2 to be released. I'm sure if anyone has a handle on the amount of Co2 released from the ocean vs man so I don't have exact figures. But in essence the theory behind this is: If the volcanic activity on the ocean floor will lead the ocean to warm more and cause the ocean to release more Co2 which would be way more than humans could even think of releasing. This would ultimately cause an ice age. That is in theory and not fact. The same as man-made climate change. There's always a massive warm period before an ice age. So only time will tell what's really going to happen.

Answer 3

Have you ever thought of the earth being more like an egg in respect to the very thin shell verses a VERY LARGE MOLTEN CORE?
No one knows how many sub oceanic volcanoes are 'venting'!
Many geologists 'believe' the 'pacific ring of fire' is becoming more active - which could heat up oceans and slow down the absorption of the HEAVIER CO2 into the oceans as well as emitting huge amounts of CO2 + other acidifying pollutants.
These questions should be answered before any 'maybe futile' attempts of 'proving man causes Global pollutions that effect earth's VAST NATURAL RESOURCES'.
BTW - You know the 'child' of Krakatoa is NOW venting?

Answer 4

It breaks down like this - SO2 has a very short-term effect because it doesn't stay up in the atmosphere for very long. So in the short-term it will block sunlight and cause cooling.

Of course, if there is something constantly emitting large amounts of SO2 (like humans in the mid-20th century), that can lead to a longer-term cooling (see pages 12-14 in the link below).

http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-14537.pdf

But if it's a limited emission (like a single volcanic eruption) then it's a short-term cooling effect.

Carbon dioxide has a long residence time in the atmosphere, so it has a long-term effect. Thus you need to compare average emissions from volcanoes vs. average emissions from humans. On average, humans emit 150 times the CO2 that volcanoes do on an annual basis, including eruptions.

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/man.html

So while volcanoes can contribute to global warming by emitting CO2, their emissions are dwarfed by human emissions. But they can contribute to short-term cooling through SO2 emissions.

Answer 5

The CO2 theory is seriously flawed but it was all we had in available science. The globe is warming and scientists are trying to find the sources of the heat.

Weather is the interaction of 3 things, water vapor, air pressure and temperature. Changing any of these factors changes weather.

Go to http://www.thermoguy.com/globalwarming-heatgain.html to see UV impact causing weather changes.

UV is a fast moving wavelength and combine that with absorbent surfaces of the planet, buildings, development. The same UV that burns us is causing buildings to generate heat that can be close to boiling temperature. That heat gain all day by every building is assisting in lower air pressure changing weather. Due to the fact we couldn't see how buildings were cooking, we react to the heat symptoms with air conditioning.(AC) AC is in fact refrigeration, uses 1000s of watts per hour treating the heat symptoms. Generating the wasted electrical with coal produces S02 and contributes to acid rain.

Be patient with science, we want everything today without understanding that pesonal computers have only been around for 20 years, cell phones were the size of a brick.

Answer 6

You watched the discovery channel yesterday, didn't you?

Answer 7

Don't worry, The chances of Yellowstone exploding in the next 10,000 years is almost zero.

Don't forget that people have been saying that the "Big One" is overdue in California for over 50 years now.