Will it reverse the global warming trend by blotting out the sun and cool the earth or, will it undo the efforts of the green team, by spewing so much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere that the polar melting will accelerate despite the best efforts of humans to reverse the trend.

Show your work.

I don't know enough about geological stuff like this - but I do have a question;

Do volcanoes spew out greenhouse gases? I'm not saying that what they blow out is somehow theraputic for the globe. But is the flotsam and jetsam expelled from a volcano comprised of similar gases as, say, automobiles?

Yes and no.

"The most abundant gas typically released into the atmosphere from volcanic systems is water vapor (H20), followed by carbon dioxide (C02) and sulfur dioxide (S02). Volcanoes also release smaller amounts of others gases, including hydrogen sulfide (H2S), hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen chloride (HCL), hydrogen fluoride (HF), and helium (He)."

USGS

Hmm.

Then I don't know what a volcano would do.

That's all I got.

The particulate does hang in the atmosphere for a long time after the event. Ash from Mt. St. Helens circled the globe. There is a measurable layer in the soil everywhere in the northwestern part of North America.

My understanding is that the danger of having so much grit in the atmosphere is the very same conditions that existed when the dinosaurs were wiped out. Many scientists speculate that a comet or meteor impact churned up so much dust that it changed the climate.

Certainly, the eruption of Mazama changed Oregon forever.

I dunno that much, but I figured I'd share. I bet Mrs. Merkin has a Vulcanologist hat too. :0)

From what I have read and viewed at some museums, the pacific NW used to be a more tropical environment millions of years ago.

There is a great place to view some Petrified Forest stumps and a museum in Vanity, WA along the banks of the Columbia River. Also a visit to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Museum in the Dalles gives a lot of the geological history too.

Or I could just ask my cousin who is a geology professor.

Dammit Little, you beat me to it! That paper is from my office and was authored by my co-workers!

I bet Mrs. Merkin has a Vulcanologist hat too

As in from the planet Vulcan like Mr. Spock?

Cool!

NAH, she would be more like Lt. Saavik.

Agreed!

I was referring only to the hat!

Spock wearing a hat remindes me of the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" with Joan Collins as Edith Keeler. Spock always had that stocking hat on to cover his pointy ears.

Merkin on the other hand likes to wear broken birthday hats!

likes to wear broken birthday hats...

Better the broken birthday hat than the broken birthday suit..........

OK...WEIRD THOUGHT...

Chili...Eruption...

Ya, that fits!

LMAO at Mrs. Merkin. I honestly did not realize I had grabbed data so close to home.

Chili...Eruption...

Is Beano gonna ring in on this thread?

Here are some amazing photographs of the Chaitén volcano in Chile.

Here is a satellite photo of the ash plume:

http://www.nancarrow-webdesk.com/warehouse/storage2/2008-w18/img.211052_t.jpg

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you are), volcanic pollution can't be hijacked for political purposes. The volcanoes are just going to spew.

I'm sure the BOOSH administration ordered this eruption to sink the global warming zealots. It may have been a clandestine CIA operation where a nooclur device was placed to explode within the volcano triggering the eruption......

yeah, that's it! IT WAS THEM DAMN REPOOBLICATS

Both - particulate emissions will cause a short-term cooling trend, while gaseeous emissions will contribute to greenhouse effects.