<\/p>
Explosive eruptions can cause substantial cooling of global surface temperatures, lasting for anywhere between\u00a01\u00a0to 10 years. We have known about this cooling for centuries, with our temperature records often showing distinct dips following major eruptions.<\/p>\n
One of the clearest examples of this was the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora<\/a>, an explosive event that caused a 1\u00b0C\u00a0drop in global land temperatures. The eruption was so energetic\u00a0that volcanic gases were injected into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere 10\u00a0to\u00a050km above the surface. This caused incoming sunlight to be blocked, meaning that not as much reached the\u00a0Earth\u2019s\u00a0surface.<\/p>\n While more explosive volcanoes tend to cause more global cooling,\u00a0it\u2019s not always the case. It depends on the ejected gases reaching the stratosphere, and on wind systems. Mount St Helens<\/a>, one of the\u00a0most violent eruptions of modern time, hardly made a dent in global\u00a0temperatures due to\u00a0its\u00a0gases not persisting in the stratosphere.<\/p>\n Could volcanic eruptions mitigate the increased temperatures from climate change? Unfortunately not. Volcanic eruptions have occurred\u00a0over\u00a0history and are a natural component of our atmosphere. Their effect is also short-lived, with surface cooling from eruptions lasting a matter of years,\u00a0while\u00a0surface warming from excessive carbon dioxide emissions\u00a0lasts for thousands.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked by: David Scott, Port St Mary, Isle of Man<\/strong><\/p>\n To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don\u2019t forget to include your name and location)<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Prof Dann Mitchell Published: Friday, 28 October 2022 at 12:00 am Explosive eruptions can cause substantial cooling of global surface temperatures, lasting for anywhere between\u00a01\u00a0to 10 years. We have known about this cooling for centuries, with our temperature records often showing distinct dips following major eruptions. One of the clearest examples of this was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18964,"template":"","categories":[30],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/can-volcanic-eruptions-affect-the-climate.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/can-volcanic-eruptions-affect-the-climate-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/can-volcanic-eruptions-affect-the-climate-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/can-volcanic-eruptions-affect-the-climate-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/can-volcanic-eruptions-affect-the-climate-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/can-volcanic-eruptions-affect-the-climate.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/10\/can-volcanic-eruptions-affect-the-climate.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Prof Dann Mitchell Published: Friday, 28 October 2022 at 12:00 am Explosive eruptions can cause substantial cooling of global surface temperatures, lasting for anywhere between\u00a01\u00a0to 10 years. We have known about this cooling for centuries, with our temperature records often showing distinct dips following major eruptions. One of the clearest examples of this was…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/18963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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