Katla Volcano
Posted on 09/22/2018 7:32:31 AM PDT by ETL
Actual title: "This ice-covered Icelandic volcano may emit more carbon dioxide than all of the country’s other volcanoes combined"
Despite being mostly smothered by a glacier averaging 200 meters thick, one of Iceland’s largest and most active volcanoes still manages to belch surprisingly large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, new research reveals.
To help lift the veil on Katla (center right, above), which lies near the southernmost tip of Iceland, researchers flew a sensor-laden aircraft around the peak at low altitude three times in 2016 and 2017. At some points near the volcano, CO2 levels were about 8% higher than normal. Using computer simulations, the team identified a few possible sources of the excess CO2, including locations on the western flank of the volcano where meltwater full of dissolved gases emerges from beneath the peak-covering glacier. Other potential sources include some of the sinkholelike features that pepper the glacier near its peak.
Based on the team’s models and data, Katla is emitting somewhere between 12,000 and 24,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each day, the researchers report online this week in Geophysical Research Letters. That’s several times higher than previous estimates of emissions from all of Iceland’s volcanoes combined—which may be vastly underestimated because only two of that nation’s subglacial volcanoes have had their emissions measured in detail.
Scientists estimate that volcanoes worldwide emit, on average, about 1.5 metric tons of CO2 per day (only about 2% of the amount that human activity causes). Yet that estimate may be far too low because it’s based on measurements from only 33 of the world’s most volcanically active peaks (only three of which are ice-covered), among the 1500 or so that have erupted in the past 10,000 years. More data gathered from Iceland—as well as Antarctica, which is home to dozens of ice-smothered volcanoes—may help scientists come up with a better estimate for volcanic CO2 emissions.
Katla Volcano
Notable eruptions have included that of Eldgjá, a fissure of Katla, in 934 (the world’s largest basaltic eruption ever witnessed), Laki in 1783 (the world’s second largest), and several eruptions beneath ice caps, which have generated devastating glacial bursts, most recently in 2010 after the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.
Iceland’s location astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the Eurasian and North American Plates are moving apart, is partly responsible for this intense volcanic activity, but an additional cause is necessary to explain why Iceland is a substantial island while the rest of the ridge mostly consists of seamounts, with peaks below sea level.
As well as being a region of higher temperature than the surrounding mantle, it is believed to have a higher concentration of water. The presence of water in magma reduces the melting temperature, which may also play a role in enhancing Icelandic volcanism.
Theories of causation
There is an ongoing discussion about whether the hotspot is caused by a deep mantle plume or originates at a much shallower depth.[1] Recently, seismic tomography studies have found seismic wave speed anomalies under Iceland, consistent with a hot conduit 100 km across that extends to the lower mantle.[2]
Some geologists[who?] have questioned whether the Iceland hotspot has the same origin as other hotspots, such as the Hawaii hotspot. While the Hawaiian island chain and the Emperor Seamounts show a clear time-progressive volcanic track caused by the movement of the Pacific Plate over the Hawaiian hotspot, no such track can be seen at Iceland.
It is proposed that the line from Grímsvötn volcano to Surtsey shows the movement of the Eurasian Plate, and the line from Grímsvötn volcano to Reykjanes volcanic belt shows the movement of the North American Plate.[3]
Mantle plume theory
(main article: Iceland plume)
It is believed that a mantle plume underlies Iceland, of which the hotspot is thought to be the surface expression, and that the presence of the plume enhances the volcanism already caused by plate separation. Additionally, flood basalts on the continental margins of Greenland and Norway, the oblique orientation of the Reykjanes Ridge segments to their spreading direction, and the enhanced igneous crustal thickness found along the southern Aegir and Kolbeinsey Ridges may be results of interaction between the plume and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.[4]
The plume stem is believed to be quite narrow, perhaps 100 km across and extending down to at least 400–650 km beneath the Earth’s surface, and possibly down to the core-mantle boundary, while the plume head may be > 1,000 km in diameter.[4][5]
It is suggested that the lack of a time-progressive track of seamounts is due to the location of the plume beneath the thick Greenland craton for ~ 15 Myr after continental breakup,[6] and the later entrenchment of the plume material into the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge following its formation.[4]
I guess this means mankind is going to have to curtail 100% of CO2 emissions by stopping breathing.
Or alternate headline:
Iceland volcano feeds plants.
Re: “Scientists estimate that volcanoes worldwide emit, on average, about 1.5 metric tons of CO2 per day (only about 2% of the amount that human activity causes).”
I don’t know if this is true, but I strongly doubt it. In any case, it was why I posted the two graphics on the composition of Earth’s atmosphere, where CO2 only accounts for about 0.038%.
I simply don’t care.
People in Iceland will not be allowed to get plastic straws from restaurants.
Also, wasn’t this Iceland stuff covered by Jules Verne (of blessed memory) in A Journey to the Center of the Earth?
Pshaw! We need to go negative to stop the demise of humankind. Get algore on the manbearpig phone stat!
I love it...one healthy eruption will wipe out all of California’s green assholery in one stroke! Bwhhhhhahaha!
A natural phenomenon. Has been going on since there were mountains and volcanoes in the world. The world didn’t burn up. There must be a natural mechanism for dealing with all the CO2. That natural mechanism is still functioning.
Naturally, the left won’t admit any of that.
Let us not forget the Fluorine gas emitted from all Icelandic volcanoes. This is truly evil stuff carried upon the wind and washed out by rain into the soil. Any plants in this soil will eventually die; but, all too often grazing animals consume the contaminated forage and die a gruesome death.
Fluorine firstly combines with moisture to result in an exceptionally potent acid. Fluorine within the body, results in calcium leeching from the bones in order to restore the Ph balance of the blood. Bones fail in short order. Consumption of the carcass results in a similar progression to those who scavenge the tainted meat.
Some of the numbers in the article may be proverbially lost in translation.
The estimate for the average CO2 from active volcanoes is given at 1.5 million tons a day and it is said this amount is 2% of human CO2 sources, or about 75 million tons per day.
On one level these help to underscore how easy it is to manipulate data, for the AGW crowd will doubtlessly look at these figures as if from all volcanoes combined, a daily average of emissions from all volcanoes, while others will look at this as the average emissions from each active volcano.
Thus in that sentence alone the difference between mankind making more CO2 than volcanoes or volcanoes releasing vastly more CO2 than man.
Moreover, I think it is possible that the article is using a different decimal point convention than used in the US, using a “,” rather than a “.” (this is done in some countries) and their estimate is really 12 to 24 million tons a day.
Do you fly anywhere on Earth?
Not to iceland!
How do we fight Global Warming (Climate Change on cold days)... when Mama Earth herself refuses to cooperate?!?
I don't either. At 0.038% of the atmosphere, CO2 is not a problem, at least here on Earth. On Venus, which is often brought up by the CO2 fear-mongers as a 'warning' to us, it comprises a whopping 97% of the atmosphere.
Simple solution - Put a sock in it.
I posted the article more to highlight and discuss the interesting geology on Iceland.
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