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Investigation: Volcanoes and Climate
Slightly
modified from http://oceanography.geol.ucsb.edu/Ocean_Materials/Mini_Studies/Volcanos_and_climate/Volcanoes_and_Climate.html
In this activity you will form
groups, conduct research into volcanoes and climate, and report back to the
class in the form of a presentation. Your teacher will give you guidelines for
preparing the presentation.. You will use the data you investigate as evidence
for your statements.
Overview:
In
the early 1990’s, climate scientists, during the raging debate about whether
global warming was caused by anthropogenic (from humans) CO2
emissions, climate scientists predicted an even warmer year than the last one.
However, the temperature dropped, weakening their arguments and sending them
back to do more research. It turned out that a large volcano (Mt. Pinatubo)
erupted during 1991, which seriously affected the greenhouse effect.
There are many historical cases of volcanic eruptions changing the weather. In
1815 the eruption of Tambora volcano in Indonesia caused the 1816 “ year
without summer” in New England, Canada and Western Europe.
Key processes and
concepts to review before beginning:
Tools:
After completing this
investigation you should be able to:
You can go straight into
exploring the data, but if you need more background information about
paleoclimate, please review the websites that provide background information
(found after the data section).
Data and Background:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/VolcWeather/description_volcanoes_and_weather.html
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/average.html
What are the major gases
that are released in a volcanic eruption?
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Do
you recognize any of these as being greenhouse gases?
Which
ones?
Where do these gases come
from (what is their source)?
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/climate.html
How do aerosols expelled
into the stratosphere by volcanic eruptions act to cool the Earth?
What is the major aerosol
that acts to cool the Earth? How does this occur?
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/ozone.html
Do volcanic eruptions affect the concentration of ozone in the stratosphere? If so, when and how?
Is the gas sulfur dioxide
(SO2) involved in this reaction with ozone, or is another aerosol
that affects ozone?
This site lists some of the important volcanic eruptions that have caused changes to the Earth’s climate. Click on the Ice Core Timeline, and a second, smaller window will open. Click on the Volcanic Activity 73,000 BP (below the “Volcanic Activity” label) and information about Toba will come up.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/stories/
To learn more about Toba, open this website and find “Toba.”
How many degrees do scientists believe the Toba caldera eruption caused the Earth's global climate to cool?
What is the best evidence available for studying how past volcanic eruptions have affected global climate?
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/remote.html
What are some of the remote sensing methods used for measuring volcanic gases erupted from present day active volcanoes?
Be sure to look at the TOMS image of the Mt. Pinatubo SO2 plume two days after the June 15th eruption (http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/remote.html).
If the red dot marks the location of Mt. Pinatubo, what can you say about the aerosol cloud?
What would you guess is the
general wind direction for that time and latitude?
More Background information:
Please take some time to learn more about the background information available for the topic of volcanoes and climate. If you learn something new and interesting, please share it with the lab in your presentation.
http://www.egs.uct.ac.za/csag/faq/NASA_FACTS/volcanoes/volcano.html
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/VolcWeather/description_volcanoes_and_weather.html