Volcanic lightning is on a "Sci-Fi" level for me........very "eerie" and my idea of a portent to the world ending, and for those that live near Volcanos and don't heed warnings.............a natural fact.......
Such an interesting topic, especially as it relates to Human interaction. While the "Vesuvius and Pompeii" get most of the ink there are other interesting examples of Humans building infrastructure to close to Volcanos. Krakatoa's 1883 eruption and subsequent series of Tsunami's that claimed 35,000 lives - (also considerd the loudest sound ever recorded on earth) BTW Krakatoa has erupted MANY times with catastrophic consequences, some in the past making the 1883 event look like small change. Mount Pelee / Matinique 1902 Another catstrophic blow that killed 29,000 people. Interesting historical You Tube documentary about this. As a side note of interest the Gov. or Mayor was on an expedition up the Volcano with a group of journalists and concerned citizens to convince them that the Island was "safe" when it blew, killing him, his wife and everybody else involved in that foolish enterprise. My Favorite: Santorini (Thera) Aro 1600 - 1620 BC: Some historians attribute the eruption of Santorini as the reason for the decline and fall of the Minoan Civilization on Crete and other parts of the Mediterranean. (Tsunami's / Climate Change). Recent finds on the Israeli coast seem to indicate that the Thera Tsunami was catastrophic enough to even affect the coast of the Levant. The Minoans, precursorers to the Greeks, have always fascinated me with their wonderful palace at Knossos, infatuation with "Bulls" and unique and beautiful pottery. If one is not familiar, check out "Akrotiri", on Santorini, which was buried under 30 meteres of Volcanic ash. This settlement is exquisite for it's level of preservation, the advaanced housing of the time - multistory buildings, tiled floors and some of the most delicate and beautiful frescos of life that one will ever see, from any culture, to have ever existed. A virtual tour of some of the houses show just how beautiful they were, with colorful floor tiles, painted walls, bathrooms with plumbing and so forth. Hardly the stuff of barbarian cave dwellers. One fresco on a wall, which some believe to be representative of Santorini before the eruption, is oddly reminiscent of Plato's description of Atlantis. These were clearly not unintelligent people either, as I recall no victims of the eruption have ever been found, apparantly they were smart enough to evacuate before the "Big One". There are numerous other examples but these are a few of the more interesting ones.
BTW, for those interested in this subject, this will be on NatGeo (Disney Plus) soon, and it's favored to win best documentary at the Oscars. We saw it a few weeks ago at Tampa Theater and thought it was good but not as well-crafted as a documentary as I expected based upon the reviews. We came home and rented Warner Herzog's "The Fire Within" on Amazon for $2.99 and liked it better, although it's probably important to watch them both as they cover the couple from different angles.We felt "Fire of Love" was a little forced and it's framing of the documentary is just a love story. Plainly they were in love, but it felt a little bit forced. The Kraffts are amazingly interesting individuals. I would watch a third documentary on them if such a thing existed.
The scale of climate change caused by volcanic eruptions makes it harder to sell the idea of man-made climate change, so naturally the MSM isn't going to jump all over it.
Why would that make it harder? Volcanic eruptions are part of the natural system that results in the average temperature and results in some of the variance that we see naturally. But man-made climate change has been quite a bit different since we don't have natural variance in the amount of greenhouse gases that we produce (unlike volcanic eruptions which have a random component) but rather had a pretty steady growth on a global scale.
read this somewhere before but this article just popped up. this study, base d on measurements from weather balloons, predicted only around 35% of the volume that the study conducted using satellite imagery. nobody is really talking about when/where all that moisture settles to though Tonga volcano blast was unusual, could even warm the Earth (msn.com) The volcano, known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, shot millions of tons of water vapor high up into the atmosphere, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The researchers estimate the eruption raised the amount of water in the stratosphere — the second layer of the atmosphere, above the range where humans live and breathe — by around 5%. Now, scientists are trying to figure out how all that water could affect the atmosphere, and whether it might warm Earth’s surface over the next few years. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said lead author Holger Voemel, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
WOW. If I could put that in red 18 point font I would. 5% temporary increase in the water in the stratosphere. That has to have an immense effect. Obviously I have no real expertise, But there’s just no way that you add 5% extra water without there being a gigantic affect. Even a layperson like me…
It’s all data. With more data our models get better. We have ways to bring down the temperature now. A super tanker full of iron filings dumped in the ocean would cause such an algae bloom it might cause an ice age. Spraying reflective aerosols into the upper atmosphere would reflect enough light that temperatures would drop by a couple of degrees globally. The issue is the climate is complex and unintended consequences are a thing.
How is it harder to “sell”? Doesn’t the idea that a single volcano affecting worldwide climate, even as large as this one is, make you think humans pumping out greenhouse gasses for 200+ years could have an effect?
