New evidence suggests that global warming caused Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull Volcano Eruption. In fact the eruption of the same volcano that is now wreaking havoc in Europe and across the globe was predicted over two years ago by Bill McGuire of the University College London’s Hazard Research Center as a direct result of Iceland’s melting ice sheet.
In August of 2007, McGuire told LiveScience writer Andrea Thompson that he had studied the historical record for global warming events which were not anthropogenic (not caused by human activity).
His conclusions were that past global warming caused volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the past. He went on to say that the anthropogenic global warming occurring now will do so too. He also mentioned by name the very volcano that just erupted in Iceland shutting down air traffic over Europe.
“In places like Iceland, for example, where you have the Eyjafjallajökull ice sheet, which wouldn’t survive [global warming], and you’ve got lots of volcanoes under that, the unloading effect can trigger eruptions,” McGuire said.
With the changing dynamics in the crust, faults could also be destabilized, which could bring a whole host of other problems.
“It’s not just the volcanoes. Obviously if you load and unload active faults, then you’re liable to trigger earthquakes,” McGuire told LiveScience, noting that there is ample evidence for this association in past climate change events.
In other words, melting ice sheets will trigger both volcanoes and earthquakes, which may also explain the recent strong earthquakes being felt around the globe.
