Can large volcanic eruptions make glaciers great again?
Large volcanic eruptions were thought to lead to a mass gain and an advance of glaciers worldwide. Whether this could happen again under current climatic changes was investigated by Michael Zemp, glaciologist at GIUZ, and Ben Marzeion, climate scientist at the University of Bremen.
-
- The eruption of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, in 1991 (left) and Oberaargletscher, Switzerland, in 2020 (right). How can a volcanic eruption influence the mass balance of glaciers around the world? Image sources: Pinatubo from http://volquake.weebly.com, Oberaargletscher from M. Zemp.
When a volcano erupts, enormous quantities of ash and sulfur gases are injected into the atmosphere. These influence the global climate due to a shading effect of the volcanic aerosols on the incoming sunlight and can lead to a mass gain and an advance of glaciers. Since the mid-20th century, however, the relevance of volcanic eruptions has become less important due to the sharp rise in greenhouse gas concentrations.
The present study examined the relationship between glacier changes from 1961 to 2005 and observations of human-released greenhouse gases, volcanic and sun activities, and a phenomenon related to ocean temperatures called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Global glacier mass loss was mainly caused by the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases, interrupted by only a few years of mass re-gain after large volcanic eruptions.
-
- The impact of volcanic eruptions on climate and glaciers.
- The impact of volcanic eruptions on climate and glaciers. Schematic diagram of volcanic inputs to the atmosphere and their effects on climatic and glacier mass changes in relation to the explosivity (y-axis) of and spatial distance (x-axis) to the eruption. At local to regional scales, glaciers react with opposed mass-balance anomalies: 1. Negative due to ice removal from the blast and melting by hot lava (first mountain in red sector), 2. Positive due to insulation under thick layers of ash (second mountain in blue sector), and 3. Negative due to reduced snow and ice albedo caused by thin ash layers (third mountain in red sector). Eruptions reaching the stratosphere result in 4. (fourth mountain below blue sector): positive mass-balance anomalies due to reduced solar flux and net cooling at the land surface. Figure designed by S. Steinbacher, UZH, modified after Robock (2000, Reviews of Geophysics).
If Mount Pinatubo were to erupt again in 2036
With increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, however, the relevance of volcanic eruptions is dwindling. In the paper, this illustrated at the example of Mount Pinatubo, a volcano in the Philippines. The eruption in 1991 was the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century and managed to pause glacier melting at global level for one year. In a modelling experiment, the authors repeated the Pinatubo eruption at 45-years intervals in 1856, 1901, 1946, 1991, and 2036.
This experiment clearly demonstrates the dwindling relevance of volcanic eruptions for the global net balance of glaciers. While the hypothetic eruptions in the 19th century resulted in distinct periods of global mass gain over a few years, a repetition of the Pinatubo eruption in 2036 would be nowhere near able to compensate for the ice loss due to anthropogenic forcings. For this future scenario, an event with two to three times the radiative effect of the Pinatubo eruption would be required for a global net mass gain of glaciers.
-
- Global glacier mass changes from modelling from 1850 to 2012
- Global glacier mass changes from modelling from 1850 to 2012. (a) Glacier mass changes (ΔM) are shown as reconstructed from the multivariate regression model (calibrated with observations from 1961−2005) back to 1850. (b) Contributions to global glacier mass changes by anthropogenic and volcanic forcings. Post eruption time periods of three years are indicated for the major events by grey shadings.
Literature
Zemp, M., & Marzeion, B. (2021). Dwindling relevance of large volcanic eruptions for global glacier changes in the Anthropocene. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL092964.
More news
- Grassland ecosystems become more resilient with age
- Which glaciers are the largest in the world?
- Unlocking Environmental Narratives
- Relationships to nature go both ways – care and attention for nature bring satisfaction and joy for Swiss Alpine farmers
- «Ober mal wett hürate?» oder die Geographie der Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik
- Diverse forests outyield monocultures
- Drought-exposure history improves recovery of grassland communities from subsequent drought
- Satellite monitoring of biodiversity moves within reach
- Gone with the wind? How small birds move to the wintering grounds
- Choose your own route!
- Improving soil health in tropical regions
- Climate and soil determine distribution of plant traits
- Getting the big picture of biodiversity
- Capturing mood and affective states via Twitter
- What If Our History Was Written In Our Grammar?
- New model simulates the tsunamis caused by iceberg calving
- Deep forest soils produce greenhouse gases as temperatures climb
- Global glacier retreat has accelerated
- 1918 Pandemic Second Wave Had Fatal Consequences
- Earlier than expected
- Locked-in and living delta pathways in the Anthropocene
- Staying home for nightlife
- Directed Species Loss from Species-Rich Forests Strongly Decreases Productivity
- Daily Mobility for Healthy Aging
- Water Towers of the world ranked on vulnerability
- Himalayan lakes are exacerbating glacial melt
- Gaming for better data
- Poor communication torpedoes a second national park
- Black mystery in the Amazon River
- Find your way back with intelligent navigation systems
- The emotional entanglements of smartphones in the field
- From fires to oceans
- Ice on a stick in soil research
- Melting glaciers causing sea levels to rise at ever greater rates
- Do financial incentives motivate farmers to conserve land?
- How landscapes contribute to our well-being
- Ice-sheet growing from the base
- Charcoal: Major Missing Piece in the Global Carbon Cycle
- Extracting mobility patterns from Call Detail Records
- Mapping functional diversity of forests with remote sensing
- Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers - feelings of belonging in educational experiences
- The effect of anxiety and spatial abilities in route learning from maps
- Making Concessions at the Mining Frontier in Burkina Faso
- New method for analyzing tracking data enables better understanding of behavioral patterns of animals
- Who is responsible for negative effects of anthropogenic climate change?
- Glaciers in the Karakoram Mountains are in balance since the 1970s
- The mega-event syndrome
- Historically unprecedented global glacier decline in the early 21st century
- Variability and evolution of global land surface phenology
- A literature-based estimation of fire-derived organic matter in soils
- Neoliberal austerity and the marketisation of elderly care
- Institutional shopping for natural resource management in a protected area and indigenous territory in the Bolivian Amazon