The great eruption of the Tonga volcano on January 15 this year provided an excellent sample for geologists and meteorologists around the world to study. On July 27 of this year, the authoritative scientific journal "Journal of Geophysics" published an article from atmospheric physicist Louis A. Lee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The paper by Milan et al. argues that the Tonga volcanic eruption released a large amount of water vapor and water vapor into the atmospheric field, transporting up to 146 billion kilograms of water to the stratosphere at an altitude of 10,000 meters alone, and speculated that this may have exacerbated the process of global warming.
On January 15, 2022, there was a major eruption of the Hong Aha Apay Island volcano in Tonga, and a research paper published in geophysical letters by French scientists in the Geophysical Letters in mid-April this year believed that satellite data showed that the volcanic ash smoke column after the eruption of Tonga volcano was as high as 58 kilometers, and the erupted material was as high as more than ten cubic kilometers, or more than 10 billion cubic meters, weighing about 30 billion to 70 billion tons (of which water was more), which was a VEI-6 volcanic eruption. The loud noise of the eruption traveled tens of thousands of kilometers in the form of sound waves, while the shock wave circled the earth 4 times.
The huge explosion also produced a tsunami that swept across the Pacific Ocean, with small but extremely far-reaching waves, spanning the entire Pacific Ocean, and even the Atlantic oceans such as the Caribbean Sea, which separated the American continent, and there were shock wave tsunamis.
The eruption of more than ten cubic kilometers of surface material from the Tonga volcano is mainly rock, mud and seawater, which is erupted into the air in a short period of time, reaching a maximum of 58 kilometers, Luis. Milan and others believe that the amount of water reaching the stratosphere is 146 billion kilograms, or 146 million tons, which is about equivalent to the water volume of 10 West Lakes, or 58,000 Olympic standard swimming pools, which does not seem to be much compared to the waters on the surface of the earth, but it is necessary to know that these waters are pushed to an altitude of more than 10 kilometers, up to 58 kilometers, which shows how powerful the huge force and thermal transpiration during volcanic eruptions are.
The amount of water transported to the stratosphere is as much as 146 million tons, then the amount of water transported to the troposphere is certainly much more, at least dozens of times that of the stratosphere, because the stratosphere is about 10 kilometers above sea level, and it is very difficult to transport water to such a height, which requires great energy consumption, but above sea level it belongs to the troposphere, Tonga volcano itself is a submarine volcano, in the eruption of more than ten cubic kilometers of material, most of the island of Hong Aha Apay has been ejected, and the share of seawater should be at the lowest 1 It is normal for /5 or up to exceed 1/2 of the share to contain more than 10 billion tons of water.
However, the water located in the troposphere is relatively easy to return to the ground in the form of precipitation in the atmospheric water cycle, most of which falls to the ground or the sea within dozens of hours after the eruption, and some of the water that becomes water vapor or is vaporized into water vapor gradually forms precipitation in the troposphere, and many meteorologists tweet that the torrential rains in South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and other countries in the southern hemisphere this year are related to the eruption of The Tonga volcano.
But the water transported to the stratosphere is more likely to affect the global climate, as many as 10 West Lakes water is sent to the stratosphere 10 kilometers high, it is still quite amazing to think, but these waters do not exist in the form of liquid water, but become small water droplets, Xiaoice crystals, water vapor, of which water vapor is mainly in the form of water molecules in the stratosphere, the report shows that so much water accounts for about 10% of the total water content of the stratosphere, which is equivalent to suddenly adding 1/10 of the water to the stratosphere, It is bound to upset the original balance there.
Studies believe that these water will stay in the stratosphere or will stay for 5 years or even longer, ozone is easier to dissolve in water than oxygen, its solubility is 13 times that of oxygen, so the presence of these waters is likely to erode the ozone in the stratosphere, and ozone can block the ultraviolet rays in the sunlight to illuminate the earth, without his dominance, then the strongest ultraviolet rays in the sunlight will be able to reach the ground, which is likely to exacerbate global warming.
Resources:
The Paper's July 28 article "Tonga volcano erupts at the beginning of the year or exacerbates global warming: injecting 100 billion kilograms of water into the atmosphere"