“‘Everybody knows that volcanoes have an impact on climate,’ said study co-author Marion Jegen, a geophysicist at Geomar in Germany. ‘What we found was just the opposite’.”
“The rapid rise in sea levels could cause a dramatic increase in volcanic eruptions, according to a new study.” [LiveScience.com]
Oh yes! Mt Pinatubo and Paracutein in Mexico both erupted within a year of the glacers melting off of them. “The science is settled” 😉
When you argue from conclusion, no data doesn’t count.
There is a plausible mechanism that glacial changes could affect vulcanism due to weight distribution changes. It seems to me that such changes run both ways (weighs would be a bad pun). Changes in surface weight can produce changes in magma pressures, whether the weight increases or decreases, so any large change could alter vulcanism. We’ll have to ask Mr. Spock.
What rapid rise in sea levels? Does data count for anything or is wishful thinking all that matters?
“Could” affect seems to be the operative phrase. With a 2,500 year lag it’s pretty difficult to test the hypothesis unless we start comparing vulcanic activity with climate 2,500 years ago, I suppose. Seems to be one of those gambits to increase funding for your studies by alluding to the possibility of climate change. Wonder what it would take to link volcanoes to cancer? More funding there
Just a few questions from a leyman. One, would you first have to indicate a rise in sea levels separate from normal oceanic variance and errosion from shore? Two, at what rate would that rise in sea level be considered “rapid”?I did not find that covered in the article. Third, are these just computer models or are there observations to support this? Fourth, a time lag of 2,500 years between a change in climate and an increase in volcanism could be from a variety of short-term causes, how did they separate the variables in their study? Fifth, I would have assumed that the end of glacial periods it was not the rise in sea level as much as the sudden melting of glaciers that no longer push down on the crust that would cause an isostatic(?) bounce back in the crust leading to increased volcanism and earthquakes? That would make any rise in sea level a correlation not a cause, correct?
Looks like they used the same method as finding that CO2 rise happens before, not after, global warming.
Climate change causes everything. It suppresses everything else. Usually both at once, Volcanos not withstanding.