Scientists are nonetheless making an attempt to know the results of the Tongan volcano eruption earlier this yr
Scientists are nonetheless making an attempt to know the results of the Tongan volcano eruption earlier this yr
When an undersea volcano erupted in Tonga in January, its watery blast was enormous and weird — and scientists are nonetheless making an attempt to know its impacts.
The volcano, generally known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, shot hundreds of thousands of tons of water vapor excessive up into the ambiance, in accordance with a examine revealed Thursday in the journal Science.
The researchers estimate the eruption raised the quantity of water in the stratosphere — the second layer of the ambiance, above the vary the place people stay and breathe — by round 5%.
Now, scientists are attempting to determine how all that water could have an effect on the ambiance, and whether or not it would warm Earth’s floor over the subsequent few years.
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“This was a once-in-a-lifetime event,” stated lead writer Holger Voemel, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
Big eruptions often cool the planet. Most volcanoes ship up giant quantities of sulfur, which blocks the solar’s rays, defined Matthew Toohey, a local weather researcher at the University of Saskatchewan who was not concerned in the examine.
The Tongan blast was a lot soggier: The eruption began underneath the ocean, so it shot up a plume with rather more water than ordinary. And since water vapor acts as a heat-trapping greenhouse gasoline, the eruption will most likely elevate temperatures as an alternative of decreasing them, Toohey stated.
It’s unclear simply how a lot warming could be in retailer.
Karen Rosenlof, a local weather scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who was not concerned with the examine, stated she expects the results to be minimal and momentary.
“This amount of increase might warm the surface a small amount for a short amount of time,” Rosenlof stated in an electronic mail.
The water vapor will stick round the higher ambiance for just a few years earlier than making its means into the decrease ambiance, Toohey stated. In the meantime, the further water may additionally pace up ozone loss in the ambiance, Rosenlof added.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupts close to Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean on January 14, 2015. The volcano shot hundreds of thousands of tons of water vapour excessive up into the ambiance in accordance with a examine revealed Thursday, September 22, 2022, in the journal Science.
| Photo Credit: AP
But it’s laborious for scientists to say for certain, as a result of they’ve by no means seen an eruption like this one.
The stratosphere stretches from round 7.5 miles to 31 miles (12 km to 50 km) above Earth and is often very dry, Voemel defined.
Voemel’s staff estimated the volcano’s plume utilizing a community of devices suspended from climate balloons. Usually, these instruments can’t even measure water ranges in the stratosphere as a result of the quantities are so low, Voemel stated.
Another analysis group monitored the blast utilizing an instrument on a NASA satellite tv for pc. In their examine, revealed earlier this summer time, they estimated the eruption to be even larger, including round 150 million metric tons of water vapor to the stratosphere — 3 times as a lot as Voemel’s examine discovered.
Voemel acknowledged that the satellite tv for pc imaging may need noticed elements of the plume that the balloon devices couldn’t catch, making its estimate increased.
Either means, he stated, the Tongan blast was in contrast to something seen in latest historical past, and finding out its aftermath could maintain new insights into our ambiance.
