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A Volcanic Eruption Hid a Critical Climate Signal for Twenty Years
A Volcanic Eruption Hid a Critical Climate Signal for Twenty Years
Maddie Stone
As our planet heats up, the pace of sea level rise is expected to quicken, making it harder for cities like Miami to stay above water. But since 1992, scientists have studied Earth’s mean sea level via satellites, and they’ve watched it rise at a steady 3 millimeters per year—no evidence for acceleration.
Now, after more than twenty years of head-scratching, we finally have an explanation: the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption of 1991. The largest eruption of the late 20th century, Mt. Pinatubo blew its top less than two years before modern sea level record-keeping began. According to research published today in Scientific Reports, the eruption cooled the oceans enough to briefly depress global sea level, masking the expected acceleration in the record so far.
Acceleration could be the difference between two and twenty feet of sea level rise by the century’s end.
“We got a very biased view of sea level rise, based on the happenstance timing of the launch of [the first] altimeter satellites,” lead study author John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research told Gizmodo.
Accounting for Mt. Pinatubo, Fasullo and his co-authors conclude that sea level rise is already escalating today, and will continue to do so in the future.
There’s a finite amount of water on our planet, but it rearranges itself in all sorts of ways when the climate shifts...
http://gizmodo.com/a-volcanic-eruption-hid-a-critical-climate-signal-for-t-1785081249Maddie Stone
As our planet heats up, the pace of sea level rise is expected to quicken, making it harder for cities like Miami to stay above water. But since 1992, scientists have studied Earth’s mean sea level via satellites, and they’ve watched it rise at a steady 3 millimeters per year—no evidence for acceleration.
Now, after more than twenty years of head-scratching, we finally have an explanation: the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption of 1991. The largest eruption of the late 20th century, Mt. Pinatubo blew its top less than two years before modern sea level record-keeping began. According to research published today in Scientific Reports, the eruption cooled the oceans enough to briefly depress global sea level, masking the expected acceleration in the record so far.
Acceleration could be the difference between two and twenty feet of sea level rise by the century’s end.
“We got a very biased view of sea level rise, based on the happenstance timing of the launch of [the first] altimeter satellites,” lead study author John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research told Gizmodo.
Accounting for Mt. Pinatubo, Fasullo and his co-authors conclude that sea level rise is already escalating today, and will continue to do so in the future.
There’s a finite amount of water on our planet, but it rearranges itself in all sorts of ways when the climate shifts...
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