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The principal components of volcanic gases are water vapor (H 2 O), carbon dioxide (CO 2), sulfur either as sulfur dioxide (SO 2) (high-temperature volcanic gases) or hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) (low-temperature volcanic gases), nitrogen, argon, helium, neon, methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
Sulfur dioxide aerosols in the stratosphere can contribute to ozone depletion in the presence of chlorofluorocarbons and other halogenated ozone-depleting substances. [69] The effects of volcanic eruptions containing sulfur dioxide aerosols on the ozone layer are complex, however.
Volcanic gases can reach the stratosphere, where they form sulfuric acid aerosols that can reflect solar radiation and lower surface temperatures significantly. [87] Sulfur dioxide from the eruption of Huaynaputina may have caused the Russian famine of 1601–1603. [88]
A volcanic eruption is essentially the only natural way for short-lived – less than a few years – gases like sulfur dioxide and water vapor to make it into the stratosphere.
The word is a portmanteau of the words "volcanic" and "smog". [1] The term is in common use in the Hawaiian Islands, where the Kīlauea volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi (the "Big Island"), erupted continuously between 1983 and 2018. [2] Based on June 2008 measurements, Kīlauea emits 2,000–4,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO 2) every day. [3]
A Met Office spokesperson said: “A sulphur dioxide plume which originated from the volcano in Iceland has been crossing the UK high up in the atmosphere and will soon clear to the south-east.
The conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid, which condenses rapidly in the stratosphere to form fine sulfate aerosols. A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, sulfur-rich, particularly explosive volcanic eruption.
This is typically accompanied by volcanic gases given off by magma cooling deep below the surface. These volcanic gases include sulfur compounds, such as various sulfur oxides and hydrogen sulfide, and sometimes hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, and other gases. A fumarole that emits significant sulfur compounds is sometimes called a solfatara.