VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND CLIMATE VARIABILITY

Below are some points taken from a lecture by Professor Wyss Yim of University of Hong Kong in which he pointed out that all too frequently, submarine volcanoes creating warmth on the surface of the oceans are confused with El Niños, or worse, warming of the oceans from the influence of carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases radiate infrared energy which does not penetrate even one inch into the oceans.

 Yim emphasizes that the IPCC now assumes all climate change (warming) is the product of human influence and is almost immediate rather than having to persist for 30 years or more. In short, any weather change can be called climate change. No doubt, a cooling would be dismissed as a freak event, or simply “weather.”

Yim states that climate change is a product of astronomical forcing including solar variability and the interaction of the Earth systems (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, pedosphere (the soil mantel of Earth) and lithosphere (rocky shell) including volcanism.

He ranks the order of importance for causing climate change as:

1. Astronomical forcing (glacial cycles, and regional changes such as monsoons and daily changes
2. Geothermal heat/plate climatology
http://www.plateclimatology.com...
3. Human induced changes including heat generation, water cycle changes and greenhouse gases.

Volcanic eruptions create the formation of heat blobs in the oceans and cause pressure changes, surface wind changes, sea-level changes --- thermal expansion, ocean current changes and polar sea-ice changes.

Yim gives interesting statistics on submarine volcanoes: Number – 1 million; Rising above 1 km from seabed – 75,000; Magma output in oceanic ridges – 75%; and Active submarine volcanoes --- about 5000.

The Geothermal heat released during eruptions change the ‘normal’ oceanic and / or atmospheric circulation and cause Ocean warming and ecological changes.

“Climatic models must take into account the influence of volcanic eruptions on atmospheric and oceanic circulation. The role of submarine volcanism in regional oceanic warming is greatly underestimated.

The missing heat attributed to carbon dioxide storage in oceans is better explained by the release of geothermal heat through submarine volcanism.”

“Volcanic eruptions as a cause in both cooling and warming is underestimated… Our dynamic Earth must be understood.”_