Saturday, April 17, 2010

Eyjafjallajökull Won't Influence Climate

It doesn't look like Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano will influence climate. So far its VEI (Volcano Explosivity Index) is about a three. By contrast, Mt St Helens was about a 4, and 1991's Pinutabo (which did influence climate, by about -1°F for a year) was about a 5. (The VEI is logarithmic.)

But it might cause a tiny bit of cooling at this rate, if it keeps enough planes out of the air! (Aviation contributes about 2-3% of worldwide CO2 emissions.)


(Figure via climatecentral.org)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hiya
i was just wondering where you found the info about the VEI? As I'm doing a report on the eruption and need to include sources and referencing!

David Appell said...

Sorry, but I don't remember.