Just as some pubescent humans have problems with acne, so too does the Earth have its face dotted with zits. Just as a teenager’s pimples can release viscous fluids, Earth’s can spew also. The analogy breaks down at this point, because while a teenager’s acne can be very embarrassing, our planet’s volcanoes can be incredibly dangerous.
Even the most predictable and mild-mannered volcano is not something you would want to have as a neighbor. The polite volcanoes are not the subject of this discussion, though. Neither are the locally obnoxious mountains of fire; the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum had their day ruined by Vesuvius in the first century AD, and while that eruption was a terrifying disaster for the people of the area, that event had little impact on the lives of people around the world. We are looking for volcanic events that tinkered with the climate, or had an effect on life around the world.
When Mt Pinatubo erupted in the early 1990s, it was the second biggest eruption to take place in the Twentieth Century. In less than two hours the ash and gases produced by Pinatubo penetrated the atmosphere to an altitude of over thirty kilometers. During this eruption Pinatubo produced as much as thirty million tons of sulfur dioxide, and within a year this cloud of gas was distributed worldwide, cooling the planet by more than half a degree. Admittedly, half a degree doesn’t sound like much, but when you are talking about the global climate it is pretty amazing that the eruption of one little volcano can have that much influence.
Next time let’s look at a little bigger eruption.
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