Volcano eruptions could cause widespread destruction and impact global climate, a study has revealed. Volcano eruptions could alter the climate by spewing smoke and ash into the atmosphere, essentially reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface, lowering temperatures in the troposphere, and changing atmospheric circulation patterns. But scientists now also think the opposite is possible – changes in climate could actually cause volcanic eruptions.
Gioachino Roberti, a PhD student at the University of Clermont Auvergne, said glaciers can suppress volcanic eruptions by providing mountains with structural stability.
Mr Roberti said: “Imagine the ice like some sort of protective layer – when the ice melts away, the mountain is free to collapse.
“If your mountain is a volcano you have another problem.
“Volcanoes are a pressurised system and if you remove pressure by ice melting and landslide, you have a problem.”
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In the summer of 2010, the largest landslide in Canadian history occurred on the southern part of the Mount Meager volcano, where Mr Roberti and his collaborators invested their hypothesis.
He said: “The glacier base of the slope retreated and during the hottest part of the summer, the slope catastrophically failed – the whole mountain started to move at a very high velocity.”
In 2016, another incident occurred, where formation of ice caves in the glacier saw hot volcanic gases seep out of the volcano.
He added: “This is the first time this has happened there – so the equilibrium of the mountain is changing.
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“We see a correlation between high temperature, ice melting and landslides.
“Today’s increasing temperature is likely to cause other large landslides.”
Matthias Schlögl, a PhD student at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, whose studies also focused on climate change-driven landslides added that as landslides tend to be caused by heavy rainfall.
These sort of events are expected to increase in the future due to climate change.
Mr Schlögl’s research explored the impact such landslides will have on Europe’s transport network.
He said: “Landslides are an important issue today, and we expect that climate change – particularly changes in rainfall patterns and changes in temperature – will increase, and will furthermore affect the slope stability and trigger additional landslide events in the future.”
What impact do volcanoes have on the climate today?
According to NASA, volcanoes release less than two percent of the equivalent amount of CO2 released by human activities.
However, large-scale volcanic activity could cause bigger disruption, and although they may last only a few days, the massive outpouring of gases and ash can influence climate patterns for years.
Georgiy Stenchikov, a research professor with the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University said volcano eruptions can cause short-term climate changes.
He said: “Volcanic eruptions cause short-term climate changes and contribute to natural climate variability.
”Exploring effects of volcanic eruption allows us to better understand important physical mechanisms in the climate system that are initiated by volcanic forcing.”