Physical Address
23,24,25 & 26, 2nd Floor, Software Technology Park India, Opp: Garware Stadium,MIDC, Chikalthana, Aurangabad, Maharashtra – 431001 India
By Vivek Saini
Claim: More CO2 and harmful gasses were released by Mount Etna volcano in a single morning than humans have produced throughout history.
Fact: Misleading. Human contributions to the carbon cycle are more than 100 times those from all the volcanoes in the world – combined.
Claim post:
What does the post say
A viral post by the Twitter user @ArchibaldS12753 dated 24 May 2023 says that the CO2 emissions from the volcano Mount Etna, an Active volcano in Italy that erupted on May 21, has given off more CO2 & noxious gasses in one morning than mankind has since the dawn of time.
What we found
The claim made by the post is about the most active volcano in Europe, Mount Etna, which began to erupt on Sunday, raining ash onto Catania, the central city in eastern Sicily, causing the airport to be closed. Ash releases into the atmosphere and visibility is hampered by dense clouds surrounding the volcano’s summit.
The post is misleading, and it has been found that one of the most common and most conclusively refuted climatological assertions is the fallacy that a single volcanic eruption releases more carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than the whole history of humanity. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that published scientific estimates of the annual CO2 emissions for all volcanoes, including on land and under the sea, “lie in a range from 0.13 gigaton to 0.44 gigaton per year.”
What causes volcanoes to erupt?
Carbon is found in much more significant amounts on solid Earth than in the atmosphere or oceans. Through vents at volcanoes and hot springs, some of this carbon is gradually liberated from the rocks in the form of carbon dioxide. The global carbon cycle includes tiny but significant contributions from volcanic eruptions.
The topmost layer around the Earth is called the lithosphere. It is made up of the crust and some mantle. This is divided into tectonic plates, which are massive slabs. For instance, the North American Plate is 75,900,000 square kilometers (29,305,000 square miles) in size and contains the majority of North America, Greenland, and a portion of Siberia. These oscillate over the ductile layer below.
The seven main plates that make up the Earth’s surface are depicted in the above map. Volcanoes are typically (but not always) found at the plate borders or where these tectonic plates collide. The Ring of Fire contains over 75% of the planet’s active volcanoes. The Pacific Ocean’s periphery is encircled by a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) chain of volcanoes and seismically active locations.
What do volcanoes emit?
The climate is affected by volcanoes. Vast quantities of volcanic gas, aerosol particles, and ash are released into the stratosphere during massive explosive eruptions. Injected ash rapidly detaches from the stratosphere and is primarily cleared within a few days to weeks, and It has minimal impact on global warming. Sulfur dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by volcanoes, however, has the potential to assist global cooling, while volcanic carbon dioxide, also a greenhouse gas, has the opposite effect. The conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid, which quickly condenses to form fine sulfate aerosols, has the most considerable effects on climate from volcanic injections into the stratosphere. The Earth’s lower atmosphere, or troposphere, cools due to the aerosols’ increased ability to reflect solar energy into space.
Volcanoes release carbon dioxide in two ways: during eruptions and through subterranean magma. Vents, porous rocks and soils, and water that feeds volcanic lakes and hot springs are all ways that subsurface magma releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Both erupted, and dormant sources must be considered in calculations of global carbon dioxide emissions from volcanoes.
How are volcanoes related to the Global warming?
Due to their release of CO2 and other chemicals into the atmosphere, volcanic eruptions are frequently brought up in discussions about climate change. The carbon cycle is affected by humans more than all of the world’s volcanoes, more than 100 times. Contrastingly, human activities release a CO2 eruption the size of Mount St. Helens every 2.5 hours and a CO2 eruption the height of Mount Pinatubo twice daily. Volcanic eruptions raise atmospheric CO2, but human activities also contribute to this growth. Although supervolcanoes like Yellowstone or Mount Toba only occasionally erupt (once every 100,000 to 200,000 years or more), they can produce the most significant eruptions possible. However, the total annual CO2 emissions from human activities are equivalent to one or more super eruptions the size of Yellowstone yearly.
In general, CO2 emissions from human activity far outweigh those from volcanoes. Climatologists cite volcanic eruptions to clarify and explain brief cooling intervals in the planet’s history. A volcanic explosion releases many particles and other gasses every few decades or so. These will successfully block the Sun’s rays from us, causing a brief period of global cooling. Despite having a practically global impact, the particles and gasses usually disperse after one to two years. When compared to nuclear waste, human-caused greenhouse gas warming will last for millennia. This is because it is mainly caused by burning fossil fuels.
A decade-long study published by Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) claims that human activity produces up to 100 times as much carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming than all of the planet’s volcanoes combined. A 500-member multinational scientific team called the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) published many studies describing how natural and artificial systems store, emit, and absorb carbon. They found that anthropogenic-driven carbon dioxide emissions greatly surpass the contribution of volcanoes, which emit gasses and are generally responsible for a sizable percentage of climate change.
The notion that CO2 from volcanic sources exceeds manmade CO2 either requires improbable magma production levels or extraordinary magmatic carbon dioxide concentrations. These uncertainties and the problematic consequences they raise support the observational evidence that volcanic activity produces significantly fewer CO2 emissions than human activity.
References:
- https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcanoes-can-affect-climate
- https://skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warming.htm
- https://www.nationalgeographic.org/forces-nature/volcanoes.html
- https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcanoes-can-affect-climate
- https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/42/what-do-volcanoes-have-to-do-with-climate-change/
- https://eos.org/articles/human-activity-outpaces-volcanoes-asteroids-in-releasing-deep-carbon
- https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2011EO240001
Image source: https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/42/what-do-volcanoes-have-to-do-with-climate-change/
