Will a fiery hot volcano cool the planet?

JAVA, INDONESIA – Last week, Mount Ruang in Indonesia erupted with powerful explosions, sending volcanic gases soaring high into the sky, even reaching a layer of the atmosphere called the stratosphere, which is way up above where planes fly.

These eruptions shot up a huge cloud of ash and gases, some of which went more than 65,000 feet into the air.

While volcanoes like Mount Ruang can temporarily cool the Earth by sending gases high into the sky, they can also warm it up in some ways. The ash and gases released during an eruption can trap heat in the atmosphere, acting like a blanket and preventing some of the Sun’s warmth from escaping back into space.

Mount Ruang’s impact on the weather and climate will likely be short-lived. Even though the volcano is still dangerous and people are being evacuated from the area, its effect on things like temperature and rain might not last long.

Mount Ruang is a type of volcano called a stratovolcano, which can erupt explosively because of the way its cone shape allows gases to build up inside. It’s located on Ruang Island in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province and has erupted multiple times recently.

When volcanoes erupt, they release a mix of ash, rocks, minerals, and gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. These gases can reach high into the atmosphere, with some even entering the stratosphere, a layer above where most weather occurs.

In the stratosphere, gases like sulfur dioxide and water vapor combine to form tiny droplets that reflect sunlight away from Earth, cooling the planet. But sometimes, the ash and gases from eruptions can also lead to a warming effect by trapping heat in the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

Injected ash falls rapidly from the stratosphere -- most of it is removed within several days to weeks -- and has little impact on climate change. But volcanic gases like sulfur dioxide can cause global cooling, while volcanic carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, can potentially promote global warming.

But don’t blame global warming on the massive volcanic eruptions that can release substantial quantities of carbon dioxide into the air.

While the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, discharged around 10 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere within just 9 hours, remarkably, it now takes humanity a mere 2.5 hours to emit a comparable amount.

Although such large explosive eruptions occur globally only about once every decade, human emissions persist relentlessly and are growing annually.