An El Niño event could be triggered by this volcano next winter

By 05/06/2020 portal-3

Un evento de El Niño podría ser desencadenado por este volcán el próximo invierno

The gases released could trigger an El Niño event during winter 2020-21, a more intense polar vortex and warming across Eurasia, according to a study carried out by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).

He Taal volcano, near Manila, began erupting on January 12, 2020, sending ash 14 kilometers into the air, covering villages in a layer of dust and affecting nearly 460,000 people.


taal

He Taal volcano It is part of a chain of volcanoes along the western side of the island of Luzon, which were formed by subduction of the Eurasian plate beneath the mobile Philippine volcanic belt. Taal Lake is within a 25-30 kilometer caldera formed by four explosive eruptions between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago.

He study has been published in the magazine Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (AAS). Fine ash and sulfur dioxide from the eruptions block incoming solar radiation, thereby reducing heat at the Earth's surface which in turn produces atmospheric warming.

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To project the impact of the Taal eruption, researchers took data on the scale of volcanic eruptions around the world during the last 1,100 years taken from ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica and entered them into global climate models.

They consider that there is a high probability (83% probability) of an El Niño-like warming event during winter 2020/21 if the magnitude of the Taal eruption reaches a mid-range “volcanic explosive index.” This would cause an enhanced polar vortex - a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth's north and south poles, which in turn would cause warming across the entire Eurasian continent.


The news

An El Niño event could be triggered by this volcano next winter

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.