Melting Ice Caps Could Increase Volcanic Eruptions
15.04.2008 - Other
An article published in the New Scientist magazine suggests that climate change and the melting of ice caps could cause an increase in global volcanic activity. Research scientists Carolina Pagli of the University of Leeds, UK, and Freysteinn Sigmundsson of the University of Iceland studied the effects of the melting ice around Vatnajökull, the largest Iceland ice cap, on the underneath crust and magma.
One of the theories brought forward by the two scientists was that as ice disappears, pressure against the rocks under the ice sheet is relieved, thereby increasing the rate at which it melts into magma. Due to the specific configuration of the Vatnajökull ice cap, laying across the boundary of several plates in the Earth's crust, extra magma could be produced as the ice melts, causing the volcano to erupt more often than before.
However, the Iceland example does not mean the magma will be melting faster all over the world. The effects of the thinning ice on worldwide volcanic eruptions lay somewhere else: as the amount of pressure on the crust changes, geological stresses change inside the crust, causing, in turn, more volcanic eruptions to occur. Places most at risk include Antarctica's Mount Erebus, the Aleutian Islands and other Alaskan volcanoes, but more remote places are no less in danger.
In light of current climate change, the effects of the thinning ice could even be double as, Bill McGuire of the University College London in the UK, announces: "It's not just unloading the crust that triggers volcanic activity but loading as well." He and his team will thus look into the effects of the rising sea-level, a direct consequence of the melting ice caps, on volcanic activity.
