Have volcanoes stabilised temperatures at Earth’s surface?

The findings of the study were published in the journal 'Nature Geoscience'.

London: A new study has found that volcanoes have been responsible for stabilising temperatures at Earth’s surface and acted as a safety valve for Earth’s long-term climate. The findings of the study were published in the journal ‘Nature Geoscience’.

Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered that extensive chains of volcanoes have been responsible for both emitting and then removing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) over geological time. The researchers, working with colleagues at the University of Sydney, Australian National University (ANU), University of Ottawa and the University of Leeds, explored the combined impact of processes in the solid Earth, oceans and atmosphere over the past 400 million years.

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The natural break-down and dissolution of rocks at Earth’s surface is called chemical weathering. It is critically important because the products of weathering (elements like calcium and magnesium) are flushed via rivers to the oceans, where they form minerals that lock up CO2. This feedback mechanism regulates atmospheric CO2 levels, and in turn global climate, over geological time.

“In this respect, weathering of the Earth’s surface serves as a geological thermostat,” said lead author Dr Tom Gernon, Associate Professor in Earth Science at the University of Southampton, and a Fellow of the Turing Institute.

“But the underlying controls have proven difficult to determine due to the complexity of the Earth system,” added Dr Gernon.

Understanding the relative influence of specific processes within the Earth system response has therefore been an intractable problem. To unravel the complexity, the team constructed a novel “Earth network”, incorporating machine-learning algorithms and plate tectonic reconstructions. This enabled them to identify the dominant interactions within the Earth system, and how they evolved through time.