Material Erupted from Volcanoes Could Affect the Climate Change

Eruption is natural activities conducted by volcanoes in frequent of time. The results of volcanic activities are various and they are including the dust, high-temperature of cloud which can rise into atmosphere. One of the recent volcanic activities happened lots in Indonesia is Sinabung Mountain. Although the end of the activities produces rich-nutrients inside the soil, they generated the greenhouse gasses including methane which can give big impact to the global warming. Consequently, climate change is mainly impacted.

Global warming is one of the event happened in the world today because of the increasing level of temperature annually. The main factor of elevating heat is the greenhouse gasses which have been produced from fossil fuels. Mainly is occurred because of carbon dioxide which is generated from machinery for electricity and transportation. However, the production of greenhouse gases is not only resulted from the human activities but also natural events including methane and Sulphur dioxide which is produced from the eruptions of volcanoes.

Mount Sinabung, North Sumatera Indonesia After First Eruption in 2010s 

One of the greenhouse gases is Sulphur dioxide which is erupted from volcanic activities. The study conducted by Didier Swingedouw et al., suggested that the releasing gas from volcanoes to the part of atmosphere triggers the aerosol matter which can reflection solar storm from the space. This reflection events disturb the system in atmosphere which leads into unstable. As a result, the balancing system of energy in our climate is distorted and causes the climatic change.

The study surveyed the regional climate impact happened in Atlantic. They separated the area into three groups which are considered as the impacted-area. Those areas are North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Geologically speaking, these three areas have the most volcanoes around the world. Based on the networking of the earth plates, there are subduction zones in these regionals and they are related to each other. So, we can assume if a volcano erupted and it would trigger the others volcanoes even though it will be happening in a very long time in the future.

However, as this study mentioned actually the eruptions of materials except lava and magma are three gasses. They are Sulphur dioxide, water vapor and carbon dioxide as far as the main gasses are concerned. The Sulphur and carbon dioxide are classified as greenhouse gases which can prevent the temperature inside the Earth radiated to the space. Interestingly, air pollutant in the atmosphere caused by the ash resulting from the eruptions depends on the amount of eruptions of the volcanoes. Therefore, the scale of eruptions and materials erupted are important to measure due to impact to the Earth.

Robock and Timmreck, which is written in Swingedouw’s paper, stated that the airborne gas could commence the oxidation reaction which leads to alternation of atmospheric layer. It is sulphate aerosols which is sulphatic acid and it influences the optical properties of atmosphere which can alter the intensity of sunlight goes to the Earth. As a result, the surface of the Earth will experience low temperature while the atmosphere traps the sunlight which can increase the temperature because of the preventive properties of the aerosol. And if the eruptions have high scale, the event will be experienced for long duration. Consequently, this natural mechanism alters the climate system.

Based on Swingedouw’s study, the eruption from volcanoes’ activities affected the environmental systems which are unstable system. Even though, it only triggered the alternation in environment in a small condition. For example, Robock which is referred by this study, stated that the aerosols formation from sulphate are recycled through the rainfall mechanisms. On the other hand, the carbon dioxide emitted during the eruptions collectively with water vapor can be absorbed by the plants as the raw material in synthesizing energy throughout photosynthesis. Nevertheless, the results are weak in term of scale-effect, but the big damage could be happened if the eruptions conducted by several volcanoes.

Surprisingly, as we provided above from the journals, the big effect can be experienced today through the increasing level of temperature globally. This leads into the climatic change in several areas and they are NAO, ENSO, AMO and AMOC. According to observational experiments conducted by this study, all alternation happened to those areas particularly in elevating temperature were mainly caused by the eruptions in several times. For example, mount Samalas in Indonesia which was erupted in thirteenth century and it was followed by Mount Tambora and Krakatoa which are in Indonesia too erupted six hundred years later.

Overall, there are predictions related to the increasing heat in the Earth will be happened in the future. All those areas are mainly affected by the eruptions as far as the temperature of the ocean. The positive impact can be observed today by the melting of ice-berg in those areas and furthermore the temperature of seas and oceans on these areas are warmer than before.