Global Warming!!
on 07/13/2009 at 09:10 AM
That is one heck of a picture. Very impressive.
Ahh, Drew does the APOD Picture of the Day also. Kudos Drew!!
Yes, there is an astronomical connection: look above and you see the Big Dipper at least.
The ‘big picture’ is at:
As for global warming; remember that Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption probably put out more greenhouse gases than mankind has emitted in history.
The volcano’s ultra-Plinian eruption in June 1991 produced the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century (after the 1912 eruption of Novarupta) and the largest eruption in living memory.[4] The colossal 1991 eruption had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6, and came some 450–500 years after the volcano’s last known eruptive activity (estimated as VEI 5, the level of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens), and some 1000 years after previous VEI 6 eruptive activity.[5] Successful predictions of the onset of the climactic eruption led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the surrounding areas, saving many lives, but surrounding areas were severely damaged by pyroclastic flows, ash deposits, and later by lahars caused by rainwater remobilizing earlier volcanic deposits: thousands of houses and other buildings were destroyed.[4]
The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10 billion metric tonnes (10 cubic kilometres) of magma, and 20 million tons of SO2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and metals to the surface environment. It injected large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere—more than any eruption since that of Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone depletion temporarily increased substantially.Source: Wikipedia
Chris ... and yet, and yet ... I look up the idea that volcanoes spew so much more gas than people do, and every “scientific” site I go to says that for CO2 it’s the other way round, by several orders of magnitude. or perhaps they are accurate but misleading, in that volcanoes don’t emit all that much CO2, since they’re busy throwing all those other nasty gases and dust into the atmosphere?
CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas. It is merely a bit player. Water vapor is the real star by huge amounts, and I’m sure sulpher dioxide (SO2) is just as bad or worse than CO2.
CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas…
Of course not. The biggest ‘greenhouse gas’ is…
Wait for it…
Water!
