Over the last few decades, melting glaciers and erupting volcanoes are two events that have captured the attention of scientists and the general public alike. But have you ever thought about how these two processes might be related?
New research presented at the Goldschmidt Conference suggests that climate change is the link between melting glaciers and exploding volcanoes. As glaciers continue to retreat due to global warming, the Earth is likely to experience more frequent and more powerful volcanic eruptions.
This isn’t the first study to make connections between the behavior of glaciers and volcanoes, as scientists have been monitoring volcanoes in Iceland for this exact thing. However, it is the first to focus on continental volcanic systems like the ones in Antarctica and North America.
“Our study suggests this phenomenon isn’t limited to Iceland, where increased volcanicity has been observed, but could also occur in Antarctica. Other continental regions, ...
