Volcanic Explosivity Index and climate warming.

 Topic Thirty Five

Volcanic Explosivity Index and climate warming.

The Volcanic Explosivity Index was developed in the 1980s as sort of a cousin to the Richter scale. The index runs from zero, for a gentle burp of an eruption, to eight, for a “mega-colossal,” epoch-making catastrophe. Like its better-known relative, the VEI is logarithmic, so, for example, an eruption has a magnitude of four if it produces more than a hundred million cubic meters of ejecta and a magnitude of five if it produces more than a billion. In recorded history, there have been only a handful of magnitude sevens (a hundred billion cubic meters) and no eruptions of magnitude eight. Among the sevens, the most recent—and, hence, the best chronicled—is the eruption of Mount Tambora, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. Under a White Sky (pp. 165-166). Crown. Kindle Edition. 

The Richter scale which measures the intensity of an earthquake is well known but the VEI, Volcanic Explosivity Index, is probably a new concept for many people. The Volcanic Explosivity Index measures the amount of ejecta put into the atmosphere by volcanic eruption. 

The amount of aerosols put into the atmosphere affects the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth and decreases the warming effect of these sun rays which are reflected back into space. . And so we have climate cooling instead of climate warming. 

So the question is raised, what if homo sapiens deliberately put aerosols into the atmosphere to deliberately reflect the sun’s rays back into space to decrease climate warming? Is this a good idea?