Melting Ice Caps Could Bring Dormant Volcanoes to Life, Research from the Chilean Andes Shows

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By Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News. 

Excerpt: Add to the long list of global warming concerns that melting ice caps could trigger more volcanic eruptions. Worse, researchers said Monday at a scientific conference in Prague, the increasing volcanic activity holds the potential for a range of long-term climate feedbacks, as some volcanoes in Antarctica could accelerate ice melt from below while others could be so explosive that they send climate-altering material into the upper layers of the atmosphere. The research funded by the National Science Foundation studied the chemistry of rocks at six volcanoes in the Chilean Andes, where the scientists were able to detail changes in the magma below the ice or underground over the millennia of the most recent ice age, and to document how volcanic activity increased when the ice melted. University of Wisconsin–Madison geoscientist Brad Singer, who led the research, said there are clear signs that thick ice caps act as lids on volcanoes, which can blow their tops when the icy cover melts or slides away.... 

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