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"Volcanic eruptions."
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Escape from the volcano : can science save your life?
\"While reading the temperature of a lava flow on an active volcano, Joe and Dr. Bea's science skills come in handy to help them outsmart the fiery flow of molten rock. In this adventurous title, readers will learn about different kinds of volcanoes, how they form, and about some of the most destructive eruptions in history.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Extreme climate after massive eruption of Alaska’s Okmok volcano in 43 BCE and effects on the late Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Kingdom
The assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE triggered a power struggle that ultimately ended the Roman Republic and, eventually, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, leading to the rise of the Roman Empire. Climate proxies and written documents indicate that this struggle occurred during a period of unusually inclement weather, famine, and disease in the Mediterranean region; historians have previously speculated that a large volcanic eruption of unknown origin was the most likely cause. Here we show using well-dated volcanic fallout records in six Arctic ice cores that one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 2,500 y occurred in early 43 BCE, with distinct geochemistry of tephra deposited during the event identifying the Okmok volcano in Alaska as the source. Climate proxy records show that 43 and 42 BCE were among the coldest years of recent millennia in the Northern Hemisphere at the start of one of the coldest decades. Earth system modeling suggests that radiative forcing from this massive, high-latitude eruption led to pronounced changes in hydroclimate, including seasonal temperatures in specific Mediterranean regions as much as 7 °C below normal during the 2 y period following the eruption and unusually wet conditions. While it is difficult to establish direct causal linkages to thinly documented historical events, the wet and very cold conditions from this massive eruption on the opposite side of Earth probably resulted in crop failures, famine, and disease, exacerbating social unrest and contributing to political realignments throughout the Mediterranean region at this critical juncture of Western civilization.
Journal Article
Volcano geo facts
\"Find out about the different types of volcanoes and how they form. Learn how scientists monitor volcanic activity, and what makes some eruptions so much more destructive than others. Read about some of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history and their effects on the people and environment surrounding them\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years
Volcanic eruptions contribute to climate variability, but quantifying these contributions has been limited by inconsistencies in the timing of atmospheric volcanic aerosol loading determined from ice cores and subsequent cooling from climate proxies such as tree rings. Here we resolve these inconsistencies and show that large eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of interannual-to-decadal temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years. Our results are based on new records of atmospheric aerosol loading developed from high-resolution, multi-parameter measurements from an array of Greenland and Antarctic ice cores as well as distinctive age markers to constrain chronologies. Overall, cooling was proportional to the magnitude of volcanic forcing and persisted for up to ten years after some of the largest eruptive episodes. Our revised timescale more firmly implicates volcanic eruptions as catalysts in the major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions in Eurasia and Mesoamerica while allowing multi-millennium quantification of climate response to volcanic forcing.
Ice-core and tree-ring data show that large volcanic eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years, firmly implicating such eruptions as catalysts in major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions.
Recalibration of volcanic eruptions/climate linkage
Past research has suggested that volcanic eruptions influence climate, but it has proved difficult to match the chronologies of annually resolved and precisely dated tree rings to the chronologies of volcanic variability recorded in ice cores. Michael Sigl
et al
. use a spike in atmospheric
10
Be — clearly linked to a cosmic-ray anomaly that left a unique atmospheric
14
C fingerprint in tree rings across Europe in the year 775 — as a means of dating a similar spike observed in ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. In making this connection the authors establish that the ice core record should be adjusted by seven years. The data confirm that large volcanic eruptions in the tropics and high latitudes were primary drivers of temperature variability in the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2,500 years, and implicate such eruptions as catalysts in major sixth-century pandemics, famines, and socioeconomic disruptions.
Journal Article
Waking the giant : how a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes
\"The ground beneath our feet may seem safe and solid, but earthquakes, volcanic blasts and other hazardous natural phenomena leave us in no doubt that this isn't the case. The Earth is a dynamic planet of shifting tectonic plates that is responsive to change, particularly when there is a dramatic climate transition. We know that at the end of the last Ice Age, as the great glaciers disappeared, the release in pressure allowed the crust beneath to bounce back. At the same time, staggering volumes of melt water poured into the ocean basins, warping and bending the crust around their margins. The resulting tossing and turning provoked a huge resurgence in volcanic activity, seismic shocks, and monstrous landslides -- the last both above the waves and below. The frightening truth is that temperature rises expected this century are in line with those at the end of the Ice Age. All the signs, warns geophysical hazard specialist Bill McGuire, are that unmitigated climate change due to human activities could bring about a comparable response. Using evidence accumulated from studies of the recent history of our planet, and gleaned from current observations and modeling, he argues convincingly that we ignore at our peril the threats that presented by climate change and the waking giant beneath our feet.\"--Cover.
Volcanic threats to global society
Resilience plans for globally impacting cataclysmic eruptions are needed When Mount Tambora in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia, erupted in 1815, more than 100 km 3 of volcanic pyroclasts and ash were discharged into the stratosphere up to altitudes of over 40 km ( 1 ). The volcanic gases and ash dispersed over the Northern Hemisphere, causing what was called “the year without a summer” in Europe, with severe starvation, famine, mass migrations, and an estimated several tens of thousands of casualties. By comparison, the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland discharged only about 0.3 km 3 —300 times less than Tambora—yet caused a week of air traffic shutdown and more than 100,000 flight cancellations over Northern and Central Europe, with an estimated economic loss of 3.3 billion euros ( 2 ). If an eruption of the scale of the Tambora eruption occurred today, its impacts would vastly exceed those of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption. Yet, global societies are essentially unprepared for such an event.
Journal Article
Volcano disasters
Discusses volcanoes and why they erupt, and also gives a brief history of some famous, and devastating, volcanic eruptions.
Book
Diverse tsunamigenesis triggered by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption
On the evening of 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano
1
unleashed a violent underwater eruption, blanketing the surrounding land masses in ash and debris
2
,
3
. The eruption generated tsunamis observed around the world. An event of this type last occurred in 1883 during the eruption of Krakatau
4
, and thus we have the first observations of a tsunami from a large emergent volcanic eruption captured with modern instrumentation. Here we show that the explosive eruption generated waves through multiple mechanisms, including: (1) air–sea coupling with the initial and powerful shock wave radiating out from the explosion in the immediate vicinity of the eruption; (2) collapse of the water cavity created by the underwater explosion; and (3) air–sea coupling with the air-pressure pulse that circled the Earth several times, leading to a global tsunami. In the near field, tsunami impacts are strongly controlled by the water-cavity source whereas the far-field tsunami, which was unusually persistent, can be largely described by the air-pressure pulse mechanism. Catastrophic damage in some harbours in the far field was averted by just tens of centimetres, implying that a modest sea level rise combined with a future, similar event would lead to a step-function increase in impacts on infrastructure. Piecing together the complexity of this event has broad implications for coastal hazards in similar geophysical settings, suggesting a currently neglected source of global tsunamis.
January 2022 saw the first observations of a tsunami resulting from a large emergent volcanic eruption (Hunga Tonga) captured using modern instrumentation, with broad implications for hazard management in similar geophysical settings.
Journal Article
The magnitude and impact of the 431 CE Tierra Blanca Joven eruption of Ilopango, El Salvador
The Tierra Blanca Joven (TBJ) eruption from Ilopango volcano deposited thick ash over much of El Salvador when it was inhabited by the Maya, and rendered all areas within at least 80 km of the volcano uninhabitable for years to decades after the eruption. Nonetheless, the more widespread environmental and climatic impacts of this large eruption are not well known because the eruption magnitude and date are not well constrained. In this multifaceted study we have resolved the date of the eruption to 431 ± 2 CE by identifying the ash layer in a well-dated, high-resolution Greenland ice-core record that is >7,000 km from Ilopango; and calculated that between 37 and 82 km³ of magma was dispersed from an eruption coignimbrite column that rose to ∼45 km by modeling the deposit thickness using state-of-the-art tephra dispersal methods. Sulfate records from an array of ice cores suggest stratospheric injection of 14 ± 2 Tg S associated with the TBJ eruption, exceeding those of the historic eruption of Pinatubo in 1991. Based on these estimates it is likely that the TBJ eruption produced a cooling of around 0.5 °C for a few years after the eruption. The modeled dispersal and higher sulfate concentrations recorded in Antarctic ice cores imply that the cooling would have been more pronounced in the Southern Hemisphere. The new date confirms the eruption occurred within the Early Classic phase when Maya expanded across Central America.
Journal Article