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Climate-Volcanism Feedback and the Toba Eruption of ∼74,000 Years Ago

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael R. Rampino  and
Stephen Self
Michael R. Rampino
Affiliation:
Earth Systems Group, Department of Applied Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003; and NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York 10025
Stephen Self
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
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Abstract

A general feedback between volcanism and climate at times of transition in the Quaternary climate record is suggested, exemplified by events accompanying the Toba eruption (∼74,000 yr ago), the largest known late Quaternary explosive volcanic eruption. The Toba paroxysm occurred during the δ18O stage 5a-4 transition, a period of rapid ice growth and falling global sea level, which may have been a factor in creating stresses that triggered the volcanic event. Toba is estimated to have produced between 1015 and 1016 g of fine ash and sulfur gases lofted in co-ignimbrite ash clouds to heights of at least 32 ± 5 km, which may have led to dense stratospheric dust and sulfuric acid aerosol clouds. These conditions could have created a brief, dramatic cooling or "volcanic winter," followed by estimated annual Northern Hemisphere surface-temperature decreases of ∼3° to 5°C caused by the longer-lived aerosols. Summer temperature decreases of ⩾10°C at high northern latitudes, adjacent to regions already covered by snow and ice, might have increased snow cover and sea-ice extent, accelerating the global cooling already in progress. Evidence for such climate-volcanic feedback, following Milankovitch periodicities, is found at several climatic transitions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , November 1993 , pp. 269 - 280
Copyright
University of Washington

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