Volcanic Eruptions Predicted to Increase?

Black Swan

Will deglaciation associated with global warming result in a removal of ice mass and reduced pressure on the Earth's mantle? If so, will this release of pressure be associated with increased volcanic eruptions? Peter Huybers and Charles Langmuir of Harvard University, USA, have suggested this, as have Freysteinn Sigmundsson of the University of Iceland, and Hugh Tuffen of Lancaster University, UK.

Caution should be exercised when considering the complex affects and suggested associations of global warming, deglaciation, and volcanic activity, given that there is a reliance on one or more theories to explain and predict outcomes.

Your thoughts?

JupiterKid

Interesting theory, but if increased volcanic activity were to occur due to global warming, then surely the added ash in the atmosphere caused by such eruptions would act to cool the Earth and not heat it up further?

Black Swan

Interesting point you make.

Global Warming may or may not be offset by a Volcanic Winter, if in fact a Volcanic Winter had been a major global event in the geologic past. Both these geologic events are/were extraordinarily complex. The theory that suggested a near extinction of hominin ancestors as a result of the super-eruption of Samatra's Mt Toba 75,000 years ago has now recently been contested by researchers from Oxford University and the University of Minnesota. They claim that the geologic evidence did not support a significant dip in temperatures.