The Largest Volcano In Centuries Is Spewing Toxic Gas
Source: Science Daily
One of the largest volcanic eruptions in centuries is occurring on Iceland. The volcano Bardarbunga is producing high levels of sulfur dioxide.
Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/e94a20d52ffc7e9b8b68ea2c8d1f87ce.htm
It's all cracking open!
albino65
(484 posts)This has been going on since August 16, 2014.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)The last time an Icelandic volcano made headlines around the world was when the tongue-twister Eyjafjallajökull spewed tons of ash into the air in 2010, halting thousands of flights and costing airlines and passengers more than $7 billion in lost revenue.
Despite the power and global impact of that volcanos several-week-long eruption, it barely affected Iceland, dropping only a small amount of ash near its peak, Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a geophysics and volcanology researcher at the University of Icelands Institute of Earth Sciences told Newsweek during an interview at his office in Reykjavik at the beginning of October.
But Eyjafjallajökull is paltry compared to the recent eruption of Bardarbunga (or Bárðarbunga in Icelandic), a volcano in a remote area of central Iceland that began venting lava and fumes in earnest on August 31, Sigmundsson said.
The eruption has produced a lava field that is growing about 0.6 square miles per day, and which now covers an area roughly the size of Manhattan. The average thickness of the lava is about 45 feetenough to reach the windows on a four-story building
http://www.newsweek.com/iceland-experiencing-its-biggest-continuous-volcanic-eruption-centuries-277733
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)and it was spewing toxic gas then. They had blocked all access to it and were monitoring wind direction.
gvstn
(2,805 posts)His posts usually stay on the recommended list for the day so easy to find. You might be interested in his analysis and frequent updates.
Today/Yesterday's post: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/15/1336929/-B-r-arbunga-Lava-Flow-Expanding-Near-The-Vents-Small-Quakes-Increasing-In-Abundance
His recent posts: http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Rei
waddirum
(980 posts)and I highly recommend all of her posts. Fantastic writing. She has an update almost every day.
gvstn
(2,805 posts)My apologies to Rei. She has done a terrific job of giving those of us far away a sense of what is going on and what could happen. She deserves proper respect.
cstanleytech
(26,350 posts)And I Feel Fine.
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)That's a great song, but I prefer Ignoreland.
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)Mothra!
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Iceland... er Tokyo.. is Toast!
shenmue
(38,506 posts)Bardarbunga, one night only at the Tune Hut! Free beer until 11:30!
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)kentauros
(29,414 posts)happyslug
(14,779 posts)A general rule of thumb is such eruptions through so much material into the air, that the world reflects more sunlight and we have colder weather.
How much will this offset global warming? Enough to make the deniers look correct for a for more years AND then a sudden spike in world wide temperatures as the material falls to the ground?
Yes this affects the debate on Global Warming, in ways that helps deniers and hurts people trying to show global warming is occurring.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)It's about like I've quit "experimenting" with drugs.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)Volcanoes can impact climate change. During major explosive eruptions huge amounts of volcanic gas, aerosol droplets, and ash are injected into the stratosphere. Injected ash falls rapidly from the stratosphere -- most of it is removed within several days to weeks -- and has little impact on climate change. But volcanic gases like sulfur dioxide can cause global cooling, while volcanic carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, has the potential to promote global warming.
The most significant climate impacts from volcanic injections into the stratosphere come from the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid, which condenses rapidly in the stratosphere to form fine sulfate aerosols. The aerosols increase the reflection of radiation from the Sun back into space, cooling the Earth's lower atmosphere or troposphere. Several eruptions during the past century have caused a decline in the average temperature at the Earth's surface of up to half a degree (Fahrenheit scale) for periods of one to three years.
The climactic eruption of Mount Pinatubo on June 15, 1991, was one of the largest eruptions of the twentieth century and injected a 20-million ton (metric scale) sulfur dioxide cloud into the stratosphere at an altitude of more than 20 miles. The Pinatubo cloud was the largest sulfur dioxide cloud ever observed in the stratosphere since the beginning of such observations by satellites in 1978.
It caused what is believed to be the largest aerosol disturbance of the stratosphere in the twentieth century, though probably smaller than the disturbances from eruptions of Krakatau in 1883 and Tambora in 1815.
Consequently, it was a standout in its climate impact and cooled the Earth's surface for three years following the eruption, by as much as 1.3 degrees at the height of the impact. Sulfur dioxide from the large 1783-1784 Laki fissure eruption in Iceland caused regional cooling of Europe and North America by similar amounts for similar periods of time.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/climate.php
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Baclava
(12,047 posts)Those guys are crazy
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)You mean East China Sea? South China Sea? I haven't heard of any new volcanic islands in those seas, but there was a new island created out in the Pacific Ocean about a year ago that is within Japanese territorial waters.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)Strange though, sulfur dioxide cooling the earth is so ironic since sulfur dioxide caused the extinction of 99% of all life on earth 5 times in earth's history. Where did it come from? The ocean floor. There is enough potential sulfur dioxide in the sea floor to render life on earth permanently uninhabitable. As long as the ocean stays cool on the bottom it creates many chemicals that feed life as we know it. If the ocean heats a couple of degrees the currents from the top force warmer water to the bottom heating cooler water in the top which forces more warm to the bottom thus killing the shallow mechanism that turns sea waste into oxygen and other nutrients, which in turn is replaced by --> sulfur dioxide which percolates to the surface in amounts thousands of times greater than that volcano, filling the atmosphere as it has in the past, killing all oxygen breathing life, plants, animals, sea life, most everything on the planet. It's happened before, it will happen again, hopefully later than sooner.
I guess it comes down to "everything in moderation"?
Just saying....
Reter
(2,188 posts)Five times was 99%? Are you sure?
defacto7
(13,485 posts)How does one put the earths major mass extinctions in a 7 sentence summary? Well that's what I did and I wasn't too specific. basically it was a lite point not a complete study of earth extinction events. Just mostly from memory. But since you asked I'll be a little more specific just for the hell of it (probably literally).
What I was nut shelling are called Anoxic events and events that cause hydrogen sulfide kills. The connection between sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide are way beyond this writing, but the earth produces both in cataclysmic events and changes. Anoxic events are when middle and upper layers of the ocean become deficient or totally lacking in oxygen. Their causes are complex and there is much controversy, but all known instances are associated global warming, mostly caused by sustained massive volcanism. Volcanism sources are high on the probability list for cause but there is a great deal of evidence that hydrogen sulfide emissions from the ocean through global warming was either the main cause or a side effect of many extinction events.
To correct myself, extinctions events have caused the extinction of 99.9% of all life on earth, not in each event but cumulatively.
Anoxic events either as primary or secondary extinction events as we conclude (or surmise) are the OrdovicianSilurian which are 2 separate events, late Devonian, PermianTriassic and TriassicJurassic Ireviken, Mulde, Lau, Toarcian extinctions. The events considered among the the worst would include the Ordovician-Silurian 2 events that resulted in the extinction of 25 percent of marine families and 60 percent of marine genera, late Devonian extinction - 22 percent of marine families and 57 percent of marine genera, the Permian-Triassic extinction - 53 percent of marine families, 84 percent of marine genera, 90% to 96% of all species such as plants, insects and vertebrate animals, the End Triassic extinction - 22 percent of marine families, 52 percent of marine genera, and an unknown percentage of vertebrate, then the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction - 16 percent of marine families, 47 percent of marine genera, and 18 percent of land vertebrate families. That's 6 major ones.
All of these events whether considered anoxic primarily or anoxic as part of an impact or tectonic event caused the mass extinctions I was mentioning in the comment. There are 2 to 7 extinctions that were likely anoxic events without the help of other outside influences such as impact or volcanism, just global warming.
I won't wager my best dog on it but this is how I understand it, and I have no idea why I went to this much trouble to explain it here. I think the commenter I was posting to has me on ignore anyway. But it's a good exercise.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)Last edited Mon Oct 20, 2014, 04:45 AM - Edit history (2)
[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I learn something new every day and appreciate your efforts here, regardless of who you were addressing and whether or not they have you on ignore.
It's embarrassing to think that I was worried about methane releases causing a global anoxic event (except I called it "suffocation" .
We're in very serious trouble and not enough people are paying attention or taking it seriously, let alone changing their "business as usual" attitudes.
As Carlin said about another situation, "... and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care" ... until way too late in this case, when no creature can any longer breathe the air and continue to live.
Quelle surprise!
defacto7
(13,485 posts)It's going to be a difficult ride for our species and ultimately we will join the dinos. It's only a matter of how soon it happens and much of that is up to us. We will create the time-line of our fate. I wouldn't underestimate methane releases though. The possibility of local mass extinctions from methane release is very high as the arctic melts and the ocean, lakes and tundra give up their stash, but in the big picture it's an addition to the mechanisms which could/will cause the demise of terrestrial life. But a hydrogen sulfide kill, that's the big one. The ocean made us, the ocean will ultimately remove us.
And it's a beautiful day to be alive.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Made all the more poignant by the knowledge of our rapid, nearly unstoppable march towards global extinction.
[center]"The ocean made us, the ocean will ultimately remove us."[/center]
We've poisoned it all and our fate is sealed if we don't quickly change course en masse.
Enjoy this beautiful day.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)It may not even be that likely. And if we did, it wouldn't be global warming that did us in......but, rather, a nasty enough gamma burst from a nearby star or a (possibly larger!) K/T event and it's aftermath, if we hadn't gotten off the planet, at least.
christx30
(6,241 posts)The science is still out.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,411 posts)Volcanoes however continued to add CO2 to the atmosphere. Without the depletion of CO2 from the weathering of rock CO2 accumulates. With the replenishing of the depleted CO2 the greenhouse effect then produces a warming which eventually melts the ice and snow covering of the Earth. The process once started accelerates as the uncovered land absorbs a higher proportion of the incident solar radiation. But the uncovered rocks also start depleting the CO2 in the atmosphere so the cycle could start all over again. The cycle is broken only when tectonic movements shift the continental land masses away from the equator.
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/snowball.htm
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)Lindsey Graham.
lastlib
(23,366 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)I guess for good reason too.
librechik
(30,678 posts)no kidding this is serious...
whistler162
(11,155 posts)burritos?
archaic56
(53 posts)Mother Earth is pissed by all the self absorbed bs going on . The only good thing about this is it might make David Camerons life harder. Just told a friend last night that the Iceland volcano would be what stops the Tories.I sure hope I am wrong.
Too bad no one listened to the First Nations (native Americans to the unaware) I can only say the karma is about to over run the dogma.. Nature controls us because we are part of nature. Mankinds hubris that he controlled life has gotten us into hot water
AS Tsalagi all I can say is "told you so" 500 years our peoples have been waiting for this..
tabasco
(22,974 posts)What an asshole volcano!
Baclava
(12,047 posts)Hekate
(91,005 posts)tonekat
(1,834 posts)That's still under construction, geologically. It's like the zipper isn't quite closed there.