Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
HUGE Super-Volcanic Eruptions - How Sulphur released can COOL our Planet up to 4.5 C for 5-10 Years
If a super-volcano were to erupt today, it would likely eject so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that the planet would cool by several degrees Celsius for up to 5 years. This cooling would very likely disrupt global agriculture and cause massive global food shortages, starvation, and huge numbers of casualties.
Such a super-volcano, like Toba that erupted 74,000 years ago caused human population die off and the subsequent DNA signature called a "genetic bottleneck" whereby the science indicates that we had less than 10,000 humans surviving that time period.
I chat about the main climate-altering super-volcanos (and lesser volcanoes) that have occurred in the past, and the risks of the next one happening and where that may occur.
Also, the season of the eruption and the latitude are very important factors, and also whether the eruption would be straight up or at an angle are all important...
Hopefully that does not happen again; this is the scenario typical in a Hollywood blockbuster movie:)
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
References
Query: Could you rank the volcanic eruption caused climate cooling events, giving the amount of cooling and the duration of cooling?
perplexity.ai/search/could-you-rank-the-volcanic-er-1WFkMjkmSzOZlBWs60GVaA
Peer-reviewed paper in scientific journal Climate of the Past:
Last-millennium volcanic forcing and climate response using SO2 emissions
Link: cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/161/2025/cp-21-161-2025.pdf
Abstract
Climate variability in the last millennium (past 1000 years) is dominated by the effects of large-magnitude volcanic eruptions; however, a long-standing mismatch exists between model-simulated and tree-ring-derived surface cooling. Accounting for the self-limiting effects of large sulfur dioxide (SO2) injections and the limitations in tree-ring records, such as lagged responses due to biological memory, reconciles some of the discrepancy, but uncertainties remain, particularly for the largest tropical eruptions. The representation of volcanic forcing in the latest generation of climate models has improved significantly, but most models prescribe the aerosol optical properties rather than using SO2 emissions directly and including interactions between the aerosol, chemistry, and dynamics. Here, we use the UK Earth System Model (UKESM) to simulate the climate of the
last millennium (1250–1850 CE) using volcanic SO2 emissions. Averaged across all large magnitude eruptions, we find similar Northern Hemisphere (NH) summer cooling compared with other last-millennium climate simulations from the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 4 (PMIP4), run with both SO2 emissions and prescribed forcing, and a continued overestimation of surface cooling compared with tree-ring reconstructions. However, for the
largest-magnitude tropical eruptions in 1257 (Mt. Samalas) and 1815 (Mt. Tambora), some models, including UKESM1, suggest a smaller NH summer cooling that is in better agreement with tree-ring records...
Science Focus article: Earth's super-volcanoes are waking up. Here's what that means for the planet
sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/earths-supervolcanoes-are-waking-up-heres-what-that-means-for-the-planet
Supervolcano: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano
Volcanic Winter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter
Snowball Earth: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth
Timeline of Volcanism on Earth: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_volcanism_on_Earth
Global Catastrophic Risk: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk
Toba Eruption 74,000 years ago: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngest_Toba_eruption
Lake Toba today: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba
Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI); super-volcanoes are VEI 8
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_explosivity_index
New Zealand volcano most at risk: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taup%C5%8D_Volcano
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
HUGE Super-Volcanic Eruptions - How Sulphur released can COOL our Planet up to 4.5 C for 5-10 Years
If a super-volcano were to erupt today, it would likely eject so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that the planet would cool by several degrees Celsius for up to 5 years. This cooling would very likely disrupt global agriculture and cause massive global food shortages, starvation, and huge numbers of casualties.
Such a super-volcano, like Toba that erupted 74,000 years ago caused human population die off and the subsequent DNA signature called a "genetic bottleneck" whereby the science indicates that we had less than 10,000 humans surviving that time period.
I chat about the main climate-altering super-volcanos (and lesser volcanoes) that have occurred in the past, and the risks of the next one happening and where that may occur.
Also, the season of the eruption and the latitude are very important factors, and also whether the eruption would be straight up or at an angle are all important...
Hopefully that does not happen again; this is the scenario typical in a Hollywood blockbuster movie:)
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
References
Query: Could you rank the volcanic eruption caused climate cooling events, giving the amount of cooling and the duration of cooling?
perplexity.ai/search/could-you-rank-the-volcanic-er-1WFkMjkmSzOZlBWs60GVaA
Peer-reviewed paper in scientific journal Climate of the Past:
Last-millennium volcanic forcing and climate response using SO2 emissions
Link: cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/161/2025/cp-21-161-2025.pdf
Abstract
Climate variability in the last millennium (past 1000 years) is dominated by the effects of large-magnitude volcanic eruptions; however, a long-standing mismatch exists between model-simulated and tree-ring-derived surface cooling. Accounting for the self-limiting effects of large sulfur dioxide (SO2) injections and the limitations in tree-ring records, such as lagged responses due to biological memory, reconciles some of the discrepancy, but uncertainties remain, particularly for the largest tropical eruptions. The representation of volcanic forcing in the latest generation of climate models has improved significantly, but most models prescribe the aerosol optical properties rather than using SO2 emissions directly and including interactions between the aerosol, chemistry, and dynamics. Here, we use the UK Earth System Model (UKESM) to simulate the climate of the
last millennium (1250–1850 CE) using volcanic SO2 emissions. Averaged across all large magnitude eruptions, we find similar Northern Hemisphere (NH) summer cooling compared with other last-millennium climate simulations from the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 4 (PMIP4), run with both SO2 emissions and prescribed forcing, and a continued overestimation of surface cooling compared with tree-ring reconstructions. However, for the
largest-magnitude tropical eruptions in 1257 (Mt. Samalas) and 1815 (Mt. Tambora), some models, including UKESM1, suggest a smaller NH summer cooling that is in better agreement with tree-ring records...
Science Focus article: Earth's super-volcanoes are waking up. Here's what that means for the planet
sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/earths-supervolcanoes-are-waking-up-heres-what-that-means-for-the-planet
Supervolcano: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano
Volcanic Winter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter
Snowball Earth: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth
Timeline of Volcanism on Earth: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_volcanism_on_Earth
Global Catastrophic Risk: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk
Toba Eruption 74,000 years ago: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngest_Toba_eruption
Lake Toba today: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba
Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI); super-volcanoes are VEI 8
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_explosivity_index
New Zealand volcano most at risk: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taup%C5%8D_Volcano
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
