Volcanism and Global Environmental Change

Anja Schmidt, Kirsten Fristad, Linda Elkins-Tanton

Cambridge University Press, Jan 8, 2015 - Nature - 324 pages

Covering a key connection between geological processes and life on Earth, this multidisciplinary volume describes the effects of volcanism on the environment by combining present-day observations of volcanism and environmental changes with information from past eruptions preserved in the geologic record. The book discusses the origins, features and timing of volumetrically large volcanic eruptions; methods for assessing gas and tephra release in the modern day and the palaeo-record; and the impacts of volcanic gases and aerosols on the environment, from ozone depletion to mass extinctions. The significant advances that have been made in recent years in quantifying and understanding the impacts of present and past volcanic eruptions are presented and review chapters are included, making this a valuable book for academic researchers and graduate students in volcanology, climate science, palaeontology, atmospheric chemistry, and igneous petrology.

Contents

• On the nature and consequences of supereruptions: 16
• Large igneous province locations and their connections: 30
• Highprecision UPb geochronology of Phanerozoic large: 47
• Volcanic pulses in the Siberian Traps as inferred: 63
• Volcanicgas monitoring: 81
• Remote sensing of volcanic ash and sulfur dioxide: 97
• Quantification of volcanic reactive halogen emissions: 115
• Satellite and aircraftbased techniques to measure: 133
• The origin of gases that caused the PermianTriassic: 147
• understanding: 164
• Volatile generation and release from continental large: 177
• Volcanism the atmosphere and climate through time: 195
• shortterm perturbations longterm: 208
• a short: 228
• Halogen release from Plinian eruptions and depletion: 244
• The environmental and climatic impacts of volcanic: 260
• Oceanic anoxia during the PermianTriassic transition: 275
• Spatial and temporal patterns of ocean acidification: 291
• Environmental effects of large igneous province: 307
• Index: 321

About the author

Anja Schmidt is an Academic Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, quantifying the effects of volcanism on the atmosphere, the climate system and society by combining volcanological datasets and atmospheric modelling. Dr Schmidt has been awarded a University of Leeds Research Scholarship, as well as a Springer Thesis Prize for her Ph.D. work on modelling tropospheric volcanic aerosols. Kirsten E. Fristad is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the NASA Ames Research Center, investigating the role of volcanism and hydrothermal activity on life and environmental change. Active in field-based research, she spent two seasons field-testing Mars Curiosity Rover instruments in Svalbard, and received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Norway. Linda T. Elkins-Tanton is Director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Her research interests include silicate melting and solidification processes, planetary formation and early evolution, and the formation of large volcanic provinces. She is a two-time National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, and now sits on the National Academy Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Volcanism and Global Environmental Change
• Editors: Anja Schmidt, Kirsten Fristad, Linda Elkins-Tanton
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015
• ISBN: 1107058376, 9781107058378
• Length: 324 pages
• Subjects: Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection; Nature / Rocks & Minerals; Science / Earth Sciences / General; Science / Earth Sciences / Geography; Science / Earth Sciences / Geology; Science / Earth Sciences / Meteorology & Climatology; Science / Earth Sciences / Mineralogy; Science / Earth Sciences / Seismology & Volcanism; Science / Environmental Science; Science / Global Warming & Climate Change; Science / Paleontology