Hide The Planet In Volcan Dust

Some volcanic eruptions are explosive. These geological monsters can produce vast clouds of ash and dust, segments of material that disrupt sunlight traffic and reach heights of about 25 miles above the planet's surface.

Volcanic activity has been responsible for shaping the land. It creates and modifies the surface of our planet, has changed more than 80% of the planet's layers, additionally spreading nutrients that have allowed the development of life.

When magma finds a way to escape from below the planet's surface creates a volcano. Usually, deeper movements create pressure that propels the lava through gaps or openings. Some can remain inactive for many years and even centuries.

A volcanic eruption can have many magnitudes. Depending on the extreme of the occurrence, it can change the landscape forever. Although volcanoes usually destroy everything in their path with lava, they also create mountains, islands, and even incredibly fertile lands.

Image 1: Mount Fuji, a national symbol of Japan and the highest volcano in the territory.

Volcanic Dust

The beginning of an eruption is an emission of a mixture of gases, ash, and rock fragments of different sizes into the atmosphere. Explosive volcanoes can emit gases and lava flows in vast quantities and take further distances.

Water vapor is the most abundant chemical in the composition of volcanic gas. Additionally, significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), metals, sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), halogens, hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen fluoride (HF), and carbon monoxide (CO) are emissions of volcanoes.

The first impression is a large plume of smoke coming out of the volcano, filled with small and light ash particles. This volcanic material is tiny and capable of floating in the air for long periods.

Many components of the chemical composition of the smoke emitted by the Volcanoes have effects of greenhouse and dangerous gases, such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and acids; they can result in powerful volcanic eruptions or prolonged periods of global drought.

Hide the Sun

Massive emission of gases and ash can cause chemicals to remain in the atmosphere for months or longer; emissions from volcanoes can influence weather patterns for years, even if the large-scale volcanic activity lasts for only a few days.

Large-scale eruptions emit volcanic aerosol clouds that absorb solar radiation and scatter it. The volcanic clouds avoid warming, taking off the solar radiation from reaching the planet. Change the thermal balance. The mechanism is known as "radiative forcing."

Image 2: When a volcano erupts, it releases many chemical compounds as dust and gases.

Large amounts of volcanic aerosols reach the atmosphere, surrounding the planet, reducing incoming solar radiation and altering the energy balance, causing a general decrease in the global average surface temperature. The effect caused by radiative forcing, volcanoes have the most remarkable natural mechanism of the Earth's climate system; they can create episodes of volcanic cooling.

Throughout history, evidence suggests that there have been rare and extreme eruptions, even capable of starting the glaciation and giving way to ice in glacial times for the time being.

 The volcanoes located on the equatorial line cause the most substantial climatic impacts since it seems that it makes it easier to spread between the hemispheres. However, high latitude eruptions can also have influenced the global climate.

The cooling is temporary; the effect lasts while all the particles emitted in the eruption disappear. After the dust is over, the past conditions of the planet continue, also its deterioration by climate change.

Furthermore, there is a debate whether volcanic eruptions can initiate chemical reactions that would damage the Earth's ozone layer.

Impacts on people's health

Volcanic ash is composed of sharp fragments of rocks and volcanic glass; they can be smaller than two millimeters wide, so they can enter the lungs and damage fragile lung structures. It is a heavy material and can build up quickly.

The ash forms as gases within the rising magma expand, breaking up rocks, are cooled when they erupt from the volcano's mouth.

Volcanic dust and gas emissions can result in air pollution that can be dangerous to people, animals, some types of agriculture, and property.

An example is Mount Pinatubo entered the Philippines, erupting on June 15, 199, releasing about 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide and ash particles that flew more than 20 km (12 miles) high in the atmosphere. The injected gases and solids travel through the stratosphere and circle the globe for three weeks. Reports indicate that there is a fascinating decrease in global temperature. However, other sources from other regions describe that it causes an unusual climate, poor harvests, famine, diseases, and disturbances also damage to the water and the entire hydrological system of the city area immediately after eruptions.

A solution?

This mechanism could be a great solution or a vast problem to regulate global warming. The idea is simple; you want to spray remarkable amounts of talcum particles or some harmless molecule in the stratosphere, seeking to cool the planet (with radiative forcing) by reflecting some of the Sun's rays into space without harming people. The team calculates that those with a diameter of about 0.5 microns should scatter and reflect sunlight well.

Image 3: The solution proposed for global warming, based on the mechanism of volcanoes.

In image 3 shows the possible mechanism. Releasing dust particles into the atmosphere to block the sun's rays; is believed can cause colder temperatures, promote the growth of forests and other ecosystems, promote the food growth plants and improve the water system.

Achieving a solution requires many tests in small sectors and be well studied; it could reduce the temperature. But people need to think about one pertinent fact. Environmental contamination will continue to exist, both air and land pollutants. This "solution" could lead to a vast increase in Pollution by worries relaxation. Later it would be much more damage when the effect passes due to a much more brutal and extreme change that could be generated.

Hiding the Sun with dust may be an option for an emergency or to stabilize after solving the problem of environmental pollutants, which is the true root of the problem since this is the cause of global warming as such. At the same time, they could be other more advanced chemicals, for example, chemicals that degrade in sunlight so that they do not remain in the atmosphere for long.

Reference

• Tingzhen Ming, Renaud de_Richter, Wei Liu, Sylvain Caillol. Fighting global warming by climate engineering: Is the Earth radiation management and the solar radiation management any option for fighting climate change?, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,Volume 31,2014,Pages 792-834,ISSN 1364-0321,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.12.032.