Polluting volcanoes

1992/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Geologia
• Ingurumena

A group of researchers has just published a study on the gases emitted by the Etna volcano in the last fifteen years.

In the one hundred volcanoes that are lit in the world, Etna is the most efficient. The daily emission of SO2 is _4,000 tons, which accounts for 10% of daily sulfur emissions across the Earth.

Etna annually emits 25 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the top and sides. The emission of carbon dioxide is not as important as the emission of sulfur.

The Earth emits 22 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. Therefore, what Etna issues is just a thousand.

In view of this data, the real importance of these emissions in the Earth's atmosphere remains to be determined. While the damage is evident to American researchers, French researchers want to do more trials before saying anything.

The Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines launched in June last year 15 million tons of SO2 _for forty-eight hours, which means a joint emission of all volcanoes for a year. This estimate was based on the new remote sensing systems available to the DAP.