Is there a connection between El Nino and volcanic activity? If so, how why, where, and when?

R.

Submarine volcanism along mid-ocean ridges does increase water temperatures but not enough to heat the 100,000 cubic km of water involved with El Nino. Rare, large volume eruptions (~10 km cubic) could produce thermal anomalies that are large enough to perturb ocean cycles and perhaps play a role in generating El Nino events or increasing the effects of El Nino. Known magma production rates could generate repetitive thermal anomalies as large as 10% of the average El Nino sea surface anomaly at intervals of 5 years (which is the mean interval of El Nino events between 1935 and 1984). Handler (1989) suggested that aerosols released by eruptions may reinforce the effects of El Nino. This may have been true with the 1962 eruption of El Chincon and the larger than average El Nino that year. This model needs more testing.

Sincerely,
Steve Mattox

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