Global Warming Causing Volcanoes?

Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes

OSLO, Apr. 16, 2010 (Reuters) — A thaw of Iceland's ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday.

OSLO, Apr. 16, 2010 (Reuters) — A thaw of Iceland's ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday.
An aerial handout photo from the Icelandic Coast Guard shows melting ice caused by a volcanic eruption at Eyjafjalla Glacier in southern Iceland April 14, 2010. The volcanic eruption on Wednesday partially melted a glacier, setting off a major flood that threatened to damage roads and bridges and forcing hundreds to evacuate from a thinly populated area. Picture taken April 14, 2010. REUTERS/Icelandic Coast Guard/Arni Saeberg/Handout

They said there was no sign that the current eruption from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that has paralysed flights over northern Europe was linked to global warming. The glacier is too small and light to affect local geology.

"Our work suggests that eventually there will be either somewhat larger eruptions or more frequent eruptions in Iceland in coming decades," said Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a vulcanologist at the University of Iceland.

"Global warming melts ice and this can influence magmatic systems," he told Reuters. The end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago coincided with a surge in volcanic activity in Iceland, apparently because huge ice caps thinned and the land rose.

"We believe the reduction of ice has not been important in triggering this latest eruption," he said of Eyjafjallajokull. "The eruption is happening under a relatively small ice cap."

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The full story says that Iceland's largest ice cap has lost about 10% of itself since 1890. This loss of ice has caused the earth to rise 2.5 centimeters, or almost a full inch.
If this is true, then we should start expecting a lot more volcanoes to come in the near future.

Alot of people think it's the other way around

reply to post by hippomchippo

Yeah. I can certainly see that side as a very valid point. I was just putting this story up here cause I just found it and thought it was interesting.
I also found a story today that shows the earth is actually getting colder, not warmer, but I'm not even gonna go there.....

Originally posted by webpirate
reply to post by hippomchippo

 

Yeah. I can certainly see that side as a very valid point. I was just putting this story up here cause I just found it and thought it was interesting.
I also found a story today that shows the earth is actually getting colder, not warmer, but I'm not even gonna go there.....

It was a great article, and slightly terrifying if their predictions of more volcanos in iceland come to fruitation.

The ash in the air will also bring cooling. Man I wish I had gone along with the Global Warming early, I could have big bucks by now. Well, Obama & the UN are still pushing it so maybe Al Gore will share the wealth.

reply to post by hippomchippo

Definitely. Either way the earth is losing more and more ice every single year. Even if we aren't doing it to ourselves.

reply to post by webpirate


I have posted here and everywhere since i learned about global warming that the inside of the earth [that nobody in msm or government talkes about]--when the outside of the earth heats up- it would have to insulate the magma , makeing it hotter-hence expansion like we see with all the earthquakes and volcanoes becoming active--its biblical and true .
on question would be , as in co2, hat is the lag time for catch-up ??Are we seeing expantion resulting from years past co2-and this would mean it would get a lot worce. THE LAG TIME IS THE BIG QUESTION

And in the end - whether volcanoes are causing the glaciers to melt, or whether global warming resulting in glacial melt is causing the volcanoes to erupt - there is not one damn thing man can do about it!

TIRED OF CONTROL FREAKS

What a yarn! Do you actually believe this? My BS detector is going off the scale!

just another bullet in their ammo to push cap in trade, which will just act as an international tax on the US economy. biggest CO2 producers are from Brazil and Indonesia from slash and burn methods used on their rainforests, they dont even produce anything! this climate control is stupid, if the earth is getting hotter, like it has before without humans, there is nothign we can do but adapt, but more realistically we will point fingers at eachother

Sorry, but it ain't so.

Volcanoes have always been, irrelevant of surface conditions.

Volcanoes induce global cooling, see the eruption of 1783.

Global warming is a political invention, not scientific fact.

reply to post by hippomchippo


when all predictions are made, some come true

reply to post by webpirate

The full story says that Iceland's largest ice cap has lost about 10% of itself since 1890. This loss of ice has caused the earth to rise 2.5 centimeters, or almost a full inch.
If this is true, then we should start expecting a lot more volcanoes to come in the near future.

True.
Maybe the huge chunk of glacier in South America that fell into a lake, may release enough weight.
There could be earthquakes or an eruption close by.

It seems you're not the only one asking this OP.

But here is a post recently made by Steven Goddard and the Science Blog wattsupwiththat.com...

Read the post here:

More precisely, this study from the Carnegie Geophysical Institute did an empirical measurement of the relationship for one basaltic mineral – diposide. They found the relationship to be

Tm = 1391.5 + 0.01297 * P

Where Tm is the melting point in degrees C and P is the pressure in atmospheres. One atmosphere pressure is equal to about 10 metres of ice, so one additional metre of ice increases the melting point by about 0.0013°C. The loss of 100 metres of ice would therefore lower the melting point by about one tenth of a degree. The thickest ice in Iceland is only 500 meters thick, so complete loss of all ice would only alter the melting point by about 0.5°C, or less than 0.05%.

The geothermal gradient of the earth is typically about 40°C per km, so a 0.5°C change in temperature is equivalent to a depth change of about 20 metres. Near mid-ocean ridges this gradient is steeper, so the equivalent depth change in Iceland would be less than 20 metres. Is it credible that a 0.5°C decrease in the melting point could stimulate excess volcanic activity? Short answer – no. Volcanic activity is caused by magma rising to the surface, not glaciers melting. However, the loss of the glaciers would reduce the amount of steam and ash generated. Ash is formed when magma is cooled and fractured by steam. So the loss of the glaciers would reduce the size of the steam/ash cloud and make the Iceland volcanoes behave more like Hawaii volcanoes.

In short, the loss of all ice in Iceland would make the volcanoes less destructive.

I never at any point in the discussion said i agreed with the theory presented in the OP. The posts title had a question mark in it. I even said if this is true...in another part.

Volcanoes are known to cause global cooling after eruptions which produce a lot of ash.

It is a fairly well accepted fact that we are getting warmer and places that have had constant ice coverage for thousands of years are losing that ice at a record pace.

Whether you believe in the global warming conspiracy that it is being caused by humans or not, is irrelevant. It is happening and has been documented. I just found this article and put it out here for discussion.
People are just slamming posters and threads on a regular basis these days, without even reading the entire thread or even original article.

When I make a theory or support one I make it blatantly clear that I am. I just put this article up for debate, so don't slam the poster. If you want slam the article, but not the person who passed it along.

I've been reading up on this volcano, and this is the fourth major eruption since the mid 900's AD. All three earlier eruptions led to the eruption of the Katla Volcano, which has produced much greater distruction and emitted much larger amounts of ash that have caused colder climatic conditions around the world in the preceeding year.

lol, other way around. I heard a statistic somewhere that just one volcano can create more pollution and carbon dioxide than all of human history put together.