The eruption of Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra on 22 December, 2018 is a timely reminder. Because the power of nature is unstoppable once unleashed. Climate and volcanoes are in a deadly embrace, where they could feed off each other as Earth warms.
The Dangerous Relationship Between Climate and Volcanoes
Writing in the Independent on 11 April, 2018, John Gabbatiss explained how volcanoes affect the climate by spewing out heat. This heat, among a myriad other causes is melting Earth’s ice. This is the ticking time-bomb climate and volcanoes share.
John warns that melting ice on volcanoes “can increase risk of landslides and destabilize magma ‘plumbing systems’ inside”. He based this statement on research by PhD student Gioachino Roberti at University of Clermont Auvergne.
Gioachino Roberti discovered glaciers are able to suppress eruptions by “providing mountains with structural stability”.
Imagine the Ice as a Protective Layer for a Moment
“Imagine the ice like some sort of protective layer,” he says. “When the ice melts away, the mountain is free to collapse. If your mountain is a volcano you have another problem. Because volcanoes are a pressurized system and if you remove pressure by ice melting and landslide, you have a problem.”
Canada has hundreds of potentially active volcanoes. Gioachino Roberti based his study on one of them, Mount Meager dormant for 2,000 years. The largest landslide in Canadian history occurred on it in the summer of 2010. “The glacier base of the slope retreated,” he told the Independent.
“During the hottest part of the summer the slope catastrophically failed. Then whole mountain started to move at a very high velocity. By 2016, hot volcanic gases were seeping from ice caves. This is the first time this has happened there – so therefore the equilibrium of the mountain is changing.” Was this an early sign of climate and volcanoes rumbling together?
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Preview Image: Mount Meager at the Center of the Mount Meager Massif
