It appears as though with a very large eruption the effect can last for many decades and possibly as long as a century. |
Pinatubo's effect shows up in the models, but doesn't last as long. |
That cooling penetrated into deeper layers of the ocean, where it remained for decades after the event. We found that volcanic effects on sea level can persist for many decades. |
These results are suggesting that an eruption such as Pinatubo temporarily slows down the warming but it is only temporary, and in the future we can't rely on eruptions as a way of slowing the warming because we have no idea when or where they're going to occur. |
This result just sort of jumped out at us. It's a very curious feature of nature. |
Volcanoes have a big impact. The ocean warming and sea level would have risen much more if it weren't for volcanoes. |
We can't rely on future volcanic eruptions slowing ocean warming and sea level rises. |