I posted on a similar story about volcanic eruptions under Antarctic ice earlier this year. What is unique about this situation is that it was a large eruption that went completely undetected, and under pressures that they thought not possible. The big question is then; where did the heat from the volcano go, and what effect did it have on the sea ice environment? Another question is how much CO2 would such an eruption emit, and how long would it take to outgas? Research has been going on looking at volcanism in the ridge but this discovery of a significant eruption in 1999 is new and unexpected.
From Science and The Sea: “In the last few years, for example, scientists have found that a long ridge beneath the north polar ice cap is dotted with volcanoes, and with vents of superheated water that could be home to many new species.”
More info on the Gakkel Ridge here
Today’s Press release from EurekAlert:
International expedition discovers gigantic volcanic eruption in the Arctic Ocean
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A “lonely ” seismometer drifts with the sea ice. Click here for more information. |
An international team of researchers was able to provide evidence of explosive volcanism in the deeps of the ice-covered Arctic Ocean for the first time. Researchers from an expedition to the Gakkel Ridge, led by the American Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), report in the current issue of the journal Nature that they discovered, with a specially developed camera, extensive layers of volcanic ash on the seafloor, which indicates a gigantic volcanic eruption.
“Explosive volcanic eruptions on land are nothing unusual and pose a great threat for whole areas,” explains Dr Vera Schlindwein of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. She participated in the expedition as a geophysicist and has been, together with her team, examining the earthquake activity of the Arctic Ocean for many years. “The Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and buried thriving Pompeii under a layer of ash and pumice. Far away in the Arctic Ocean, at 85° N 85° E, a similarly violent volcanic eruption happened almost undetected in 1999 – in this case, however, under a water layer of 4,000 m thickness.” So far, researchers have assumed that explosive volcanism cannot happen in water depths exceeding 3 kilometres because of high ambient pressure. “These are the first pyroclastic deposits we’ve ever found in such deep water, at oppressive pressures that inhibit the formation of steam, and many people thought this was not possible,” says Robert Reves-Sohn, staff member of the WHOI and lead scientist of the expedition carried out on the Swedish icebreaker Oden in 2007.
A major part of Earth’s volcanism happens at the so-called mid-ocean ridges and, therefore, completely undetected on the seafloor. There, the continental plates drift apart; liquid magma intrudes into the gap and constantly forms new seafloor through countless volcanic eruptions. Accompanied by smaller earthquakes, which go unregistered on land, lava flows onto the seafloor. These unspectacular eruptions usually last for only a few days or weeks.
The installation of a seismometer on an ice floe.
Click here for more information.
- Volcanic ashes on the sea bed of Gakkel Ridge (Photo: WHOI)
- Bathymetric chart of the Gakkel Ridge at 85°E. Photographic bottom surveys were conducted along profiles shown as thin, black lines. The photo showing volcanic ashes on the sea bed were taken at the site, which is marked with a red star and the letter a.
It was the volcanoes wot did it, officer. ‘Onest.
I didn’t need this cheap excuse but, there it is, just waiting in a nice mud pie.
Just goes to show how much we don’t know about the Arctic Ocean and basin. We need a scientific ‘surge’, before we can make any rational policy decisions, concerning global processes. More data less hyperbole.
I await the headline:
“Volcanoes not the source of Artic melt: Scientists”
a similarly violent volcanic eruption happened almost undetected in 1999 –
So, a loud karoompfff was heard by military sonar arrays and, years later, the info was released to civie street to investigate. I bet submariners had already investigated.
Maybe global warming emitted by my pickup truck prompted the volcano to erupt? After all, my pickup caused an earthquake last week.
Just spitballing…………
Here is another interesting area to add to the vulcanism archives:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110976
Basically the oceans floor heaters. They estimate 1 BILLION Gallons of water a year being heated through this vent system. That is, until late last year when microquakes closed them up!! In time they will most likely open again through the same processes that opened them in the first place. Until then, a lot of heat NOT going into the oceans.
Here are some others:
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/ap_051205_hot_springs.html
Now, considering how much active vulcanism there is under the ocean, I think it is a little narrow minded to completely ignore the possibility that it could be contributing to seeming cyclical cooling and warming events that have no other known causes!!! Yeah, I know, correlation does not equal causation. Of course, that energy DOES go into the ocean when happening. The question, as usual, is HOW MUCH?????
Off topic, but timely.
And yet another part of the equation that’s incorrect: “Tropical oceans expose riddle over global-warming equation”
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieZJZzkWLLf2ZPP4ytqtD_yXFeZg
Well, ya know, anything which happens below the land surface of the Earth is taboo, much more so with the Core – we don’t want to think about it. Problem, solved.
Thanks, Cynical Joe; Gee, I wonder how come I haven’t heard that phrase before? Isn’t it better to pander first, then leap? :]
3,000,000 underwater volcanoes possibly.
“9 Jul 07 – Researchers have counted 201,055 underwater cones, 10 times more than have been found before, and estimate that in total there could be about 3 million submarine volcanoes, 39,000 of which rise more than 1000 meters over the sea bed. ”
http://www.iceagenow.com/Three_Million_Underwater_Volcanoes.htm
REPLY: Makes you wonder how much CO2 they add to the oceans, and thus the atmosphere.
The must be black smokers associated with that ridge. This is quite interesting, I was not aware the sea floor spreading came so far to the East, I thought it was limited to the Western Hemisphere portion of the Arctic. So, the transition from extension (ocean ridge) to compression (Urals) is closer to the Siberian shore than I’d ever imagined.
And here’s another report from last year, stating that scientists have discovered that there are ten times as many undersea volcanoes as previously thought.
For some reason it appears that vulcanism may be more prevalent undersea. So it would be no surprise to find the same thing occurring under the polar ice caps, no?
REPLY: The real surprise would come from knowing just how much CO2 those undersea volcanoes add to the ocean, and by degassing, into the atmosphere.
What is it with scientists these days that they feel compelled to make predictions about what they may find? Good grief. What, precisely, does this phrase mean: “estimate that in total there could be”? Any time a scientist talks like that he should have his grant money taken away for a year.
here’s a batch of news clips from 2005 discussing an increasing amount of undersea volcanic activity. Seems our Arctic episode was mentioned back them.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1543202/posts
Here’s another more recent link http://www.iceagenow.com/Ocean_Warming.htm
As I understand the story the interesting news is that this particular bit ocean ridge was thought to be spreading too slowly and too deep to produce any significant volcanism.
I sincerely doubt that the heat generated would be much consequence to ice on the surface. There a lot of cold water in the arctic ocean.
I saw a video of an undersea volcano off of Guam. They recorded great blobs of liquid CO2 (liquid because of the pressure at great depth). They looked kindof like large wobbly soap bubbles coming out of the volcano in a stream.
Makes you wonder how much CO2 they [Volcanoes] add to the oceans, and thus the atmosphere.
And it makes you wonder about how much heat Volcanoes release to the Oceans. I’ve read about how little the Core contributes to Global – land, ocean, atmospheric – temperatures. I don’t believe it.
Bob Tisdale,
Interesting read, although I would have liked them to get the order of greenhouse gases correct – Water Vapor, methane, CO2 rather than seeming to indicate that CO2 is ‘the most powerful’ greenhouse gas, which it is not, by a long shot.
Here’s another article of interest:
Slippery Stretching Explains Ocean Floor Formation
new research suggests the significance of this stretching process as a way of creating new sea floor has been underestimated.
…highly unexpected. After a while, each fault becomes inactive, and is replaced by a newly-emerging fault.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060727180622.htm
As we know, AGW is now causing earthquakes, if AGW causes earthquakes, then it must also cause volcanic eruptions. These volcanic eruptions are causing more global heating, which intern causes more volcanic eruptions, which causes more heat, and more water vapor and even more heat. Another prime example of the AGW positive feedback loop. AGW will now be even more devostating.
Infact, if this volcanicism-heat-watervapor tripple loop continues, the whole planet could explode !! hehe
I`m sure those big exploding mountain thingies, spewing out many square Kms of molten lava, gas and ash have no impact of arctic sea ice compred to a 0.001% increase in CO2 levels ! (10ppm=0.001%)
here’s an unanswered post under RealClimate blog
#1 One week previous to the Barnett press release Scripps issued a press release describing research by Koppers and Staudigel on undersea volcanic activity.
It is my understanding that many oceanographers believe that volcanic activity, including phenomena such as deep-sea thermal vents, can affect ocean currents. Additionally, if a single above-sea volcanic eruption can effect global temperatures, is it not reasonable to assume that the thermal energy released below the sea does so also? How much is known about such effects, if any? Is Barnett’s seeming certainty perhaps a bit premature?
Thanks.
Comment by Rich Rando — 23 February 2005 @ur momisugly 4:12 PM
Here’s the blog entry from Gavin “Why Looking for global warming in the ocean is a good idea.”
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/02/why-looking-for-global-warming-in-the-oceans-is-a-good-idea/#more-124
A general search of “undersea volcanic activity” yields only 3 comments on RealClimate, and no blog entries.
The first comment was above from Rich Rando which was unanswered. The 2nd is http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=243#comment-8289 which was again unanswered.
The 3rd and final comment is posted by Richard Wakefield, is this in the recent blog entry titled “Ice Shelf Instability” on June 12, 2008
Comment #42“The reasons for the ice sheet breaking of is due to tectonic activity along the Antarctic Peninsula. Undersea volcanic activity is warming that part of the oceans.”
“Notice in this NASA image of the warmer oceans along that region:”
“That’s where the volcanic activity is happening along the plate boundary.”
“The melting ice sheet there has nothing to do with global warming. I ask the question again, how many things that do not support AGW must happen before you at RC give up AGW? What is needed to falsify the theory?”
Then here’s Galvin’s response: “The question should be what will it take to stop people grasping at the flimsiest straws before they accept that climate is changing? There is no volcano under the Wilkins ice sheet – nor the Larsen B (actual location). Blaming that for the warming seen thousands of miles away on the other side of the Peninsula is like blaming Mt Etna for the European 2003 heat wave. – gavin]”
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=570#comment-89742
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=570#comment-89742
I can’t help myself – the science is settled. So what to do with all this volcanism? Adjust them out of the equations?
The AFP article linked by Bob Tisdale above has an AWESOME quote:
“This unexpected discovery implies that the mathematical model for calculating the various sources of global warming could be flawed, although global warming itself is not being contested, one of its authors said.”
The equations are wrong and potentially yield an incorrect answer but we aren’t saying the answer is wrong…
Recently found undersea volcanoes in the Fiji region and Iceland.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080619093259.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/52527.html
Hmmm, cannot account for all sea level rise from melting glaciers and thermal expansion in the upper ocean. I guess they need to look deeper(and a little wider, maybe).
From the depths below,
from the expanse on high,
climate is made to go awry.
Here I sit, in the middle of the show,
being blamed for the heat and snow.
I went out an started my car,
only to find out, I killed someone afar.
Oh, woe is me!
Send me to jail, and toss the key.
Couldn’t buy the credit,
so incurred one heck of a debit.
Now I’m broke,
barely a penny to my name.
There go the elite,
not one ounce of shame.
A somewhat lasting gift
to the Global Warming game.
My rotting corpse
giving off methane.
Global warming not caused by man, but by volcano!
Not surprisingly, liberals are furious that the volcano has claimed responsibility for melting the ice, and isolating the cute polar bears…if they can’t blame Bush for this, who will they blame? Big oil? That’s out…Conservatives?…Only if the volcano admires Ronald Regan. Perhaps there is the argument that the U.S. military can be blamed for prompting the Russians to move around submarines in Arctic waters, thus stimulating eruptions…