Geomagnetic Storms Increase the Chances of a Major Volcanic

[CaptinCrunch]

The powerful geomagnetic storms of late October disrupted communications, caused spotty power outages and produced beautiful aurora displays even to mid latitudes.

At virtually every moment in time, there are active volcanoes producing tremors or lava flows or gas and ash emissions. Major volcanic eruptions are rarer. Their frequency is more like one per decade or even longer.

Volcanic eruptions certainly have direct, local, sometimes devastating effects and the larger ones have been shown to have an influence on the world's weather. The last major eruptions were in the early 1990s (Pinatubo and Cerro Hudson). The two biggest eruptions before that occurred about 10 years earlier (Mt. St. Helens and El Chichon). These eruptions spewed a large amount of ash, gas and aerosols into the stable, high atmosphere.

Volcanic eruptions have been observed more frequently during the declining phase of the 11 year solar cycle. A meteorological friend of mine suggested perhaps volcanic eruptions were tied to geomagnetic activity, which you may recall from the last story, peaks then.

When I did a comparison of the geomagnetic storm activity with volcanic activity, I found some empirical support for this.



As to the possible connection, Earthweek (from the San Francisco Chronicle) on November 10, 1989, reported that Russian scientists had "concluded that there was a direct link between geomagnetic storms and earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. They observed that powerful solar storms disrupt the Earth’s magnetic field by as much as a thousandfold, causing the molten interior of the planet to move in powerful circular currents. These massive currents place enormous stresses on the interplay of the tectonic plates, resulting in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions."

If you do a search on volcanoes and geomagnetic activity, you will see others have suggested or found this apparent relationship.If this "cause and effect" is real, given the powerful geomagnetic storms of the last two weeks and the possibility of more returning when the active regions return to the visible disk in a few weeks, we might expect an increased chance of a major eruption(s) or earthquake(s) somewhere across the globe.