That was a largish VEI 6 eruption, and is probably as good a guess as any at what a typical VEI 6 eruption might do. Said it caused a decrease of insolation in the studied locations in North America of about 5% to 12% for about six months. The paper 'Effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption on solar insolation: Four case studies', What is the risk of volcanic eruption belching long-lived haze into the sky, blocking out the sun even without any ashfall? (There are several VEI 7 eruptions per millennium let's worry about them after we get ready for the VEI 6's.)ģ. There are several VEI 6 eruptions per century, so that seems like a good size to plan for, for starters. describes how eruption sizes are classified. What size eruptions should we worry about? That doesn't mean there's no risk, though, so we shouldn't let that stop us from dealing with what risk there is.Īnd there is some evidence that volcanos under glaciers can increase their activity after the glaciers melt, so there might in fact be some increase seeĢ. The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program says probably not, see Is volcanic activity increasing in general? Here's what I came up with corrections welcome.ġ.

So I dug around for some science on the topic. A forum member was concerned about two ways volcanic eruptions could reduce output from solar panels: ash settling directly on them, and haze high in the atmosphere.

Download free solar consequence ash