A volcanic eruption on the island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in mid-January of this year sent 45 million tons of steam into the atmosphere in addition to gases and ash, increasing the humidity of the Earth’s atmosphere by 5 percent. The stratospheric cooling and surface warming effect of the event lasts for months.
The Tonga eruption was the most powerful eruption seen in recent decades. Its strength is five hundred Hiroshimas With a nuclear bomb Got it. The explosion was felt 260 kilometers away and produced an ash and vapor cloud up to 20 kilometers high.
Volcanic eruptions are usually associated with the cooling of the planet, and sulfur dioxide entering the upper atmosphere from them reflects some of the solar radiation. This effect is further exacerbated by large ash clouds. The 1991 eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines caused at least 0.5 degrees of cooling per year.
441,000 tons of sulfur dioxide erupted from Tonga, only 2 percent of the eruption from Pinatubo. At the same time, a significant amount of water entered the atmosphere, which converts the energy of solar radiation into heat, and is lighter than other materials of volcanic origin, which is why it continues to spread in the air.
Large amounts of water may weaken the ozone layer by interfering with chemical processes, but there is currently no scientific analysis of what this effect is. Strong may
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