According to a new study, the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, which erupted on January 15, 2022, spewed 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools’ worth of water vapor into Earth’s atmosphere.
- Researchers used data collected by NASA’s Aura satellite to assess the amount of water that was thrust into the stratosphere.
Key results of the study
- Normally, big volcanic eruptions release large amounts of ash and gases, such as sulfur dioxide, which can create reflective compounds in the atmosphere. These volcanic byproducts can block sunlight from reaching the planet’s surface, which can cool the atmosphere.
- But, the Tonga eruption produced low levels of sulfur dioxide compared with similarly sized explosions, and most of the ash it ejected quickly fell to the ground.
- The study says, that this water vapor could end up being the most destructive part of the volcano’s eruption because it could potentially exacerbate global warming and deplete the ozone layer.
- This excess water could have a radiating effect that could warm the atmosphere much as greenhouse gases do. Because the water is likely to stick around longer than other volcanic gases, the water’s warming effect will likely outlast any cooling effects the gases create.
- The Tonga explosion will likely be the first eruption on record to cause a warming effect, rather than a cooling effect, on the planet, researchers wrote.
- Such a sharp increase in water vapor could decrease the amount of ozone in the stratosphere, thus potentially weakening the ozone layer that protects life on Earth from damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
- Stratospheric water, or H2O, can break down into OH ions over time. Those ions could react with ozone, which is made of three oxygen atoms, to create water and oxygen.
- The researchers also think the increased water vapor could decrease the amount of methane in the atmosphere, which is one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.
- The same OH ions that react with ozone can also react with methane to produce water and a methyl radical (methane with one less hydrogen atom), which traps much less heat in the atmosphere than methane.
(The study was published in Live Science)
