{"id":378992,"date":"2025-05-20T18:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378992"},"modified":"2025-05-20T18:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T16:03:10","slug":"volcanoes-spew-3x-more-co2-than-thought-19000-new-undersea-volcanoes-found-is-human-driven-climate-narrative-crumbling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378992","title":{"rendered":"Volcanoes Spew 3X More CO2 Than Thought & 19,000 New Undersea Volcanoes Found: Is Human-Driven Climate Narrative Crumbling?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folks, hold onto your hats\u2014two groundbreaking studies dropped this past month, and they\u2019re shaking up everything we thought we knew about carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth\u2019s atmosphere. The first, from The University of Manchester<\/a>, reveals that volcanic CO2 emissions could be three times higher<\/em> than previously estimated. The second, from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST)<\/a>, uncovers a staggering 19,325 previously unknown undersea volcanoes. Together, these findings throw a massive wrench into the narrative that human activity is the sole driver of rising atmospheric CO2. Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manchester\u2019s Volcanic CO2 Bombshell might be a game changer. The Manchester team, led by Alexander Riddell, deployed cutting-edge sensors on a helicopter to measure emissions from the Soufri\u00e8re Hills Volcano in Montserrat. Published in Science Advances<\/em> DOI: 10.1126\/sciadv.ads8864<\/a>, their findings are a wake-up call. Traditional monitoring focused on hot volcanic vents (fumaroles) that spew easily detectable gases like sulfur dioxide (SO2). But cooler, water-rich hydrothermal systems absorb acidic gases, masking significant CO2 output. The new tech revealed that Soufri\u00e8re Hills emits three times more CO2<\/em> than earlier estimates suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riddell notes, \u201cVolcanoes play a crucial role in the Earth\u2019s carbon cycle,\u201d but he\u2019s quick to downplay the impact, claiming volcanoes contribute less than 5% of global CO2 compared to human activities like fossil fuel burning. Fair enough, but if one volcano\u2019s emissions are underestimated by a factor of three, what about the thousands of others worldwide? The study hints at a broader issue: our volcanic CO2 estimates could be way off<\/em>, especially for volcanoes with similar hydrothermal systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, researchers at SOEST, including Paul Wessel and Scripps\u2019 David Sandwell, used high-resolution radar satellite data to map the ocean floor. Their study, published in Earth and Space Science<\/em>, identified 19,325 new seamounts\u2014undersea volcanoes\u2014bringing the total to over 43,000 SOEST News<\/a>. With only a quarter of the seafloor mapped by sonar, most of these underwater giants remain uncharted. These seamounts aren\u2019t just geological curiosities; they\u2019re potential CO2 sources, stirring ocean currents and influencing carbon cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study emphasizes their role in ocean mixing, where currents around seamounts create \u201cwake vortices\u201d that drive upwelling, pulling carbon-rich deep water to the surface. This process could amplify the ocean\u2019s role in atmospheric CO2 exchange, yet we\u2019ve barely scratched the surface of their emissions. If terrestrial volcanoes are underestimated, what\u2019s the bet that these underwater behemoths are too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s where it gets spicy.<\/strong> The climate establishment loves to pin the rise in atmospheric CO2\u2014now around 420 ppm\u2014squarely on human emissions. But these two studies, released within weeks of each other, expose massive gaps in our understanding of natural CO2 sources. If volcanic emissions on land are triple what we thought, and we\u2019ve just found 19,000+ new undersea volcanoes, the natural contribution to atmospheric CO2 is likely far higher than the \u201cless than 5%\u201d figure tossed around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s do some back-of-the-envelope math. The USGS estimates global volcanic CO2 emissions at about 0.26 gigatons per year USGS Volcano Hazards Program<\/a>, compared to human emissions of ~35 gigatons. But if Manchester\u2019s findings apply broadly, that 0.26 could be closer to 0.78 gigatons or more. Add in unknown contributions from tens of thousands of undersea volcanoes, and the natural CO2 flux starts looking like a serious player. We\u2019re not saying humans don\u2019t contribute\u2014fossil fuels are a big factor\u2014but the certainty of attribution just took a major hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These discoveries don\u2019t just challenge climate models; they demand a rethink of how we monitor and predict CO2 trends. Manchester\u2019s sensor tech could revolutionize volcano monitoring, potentially improving eruption forecasts and safety for nearby communities. Meanwhile, SOEST\u2019s seamount catalog opens new avenues for studying Earth\u2019s carbon cycle and ocean dynamics. But until we quantify these natural sources, we\u2019re flying blind on how much CO2 is truly \u201canthropogenic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate debate thrives on certainty, but science thrives on doubt. These studies remind us that nature is full of surprises, and our grasp of Earth\u2019s complex systems is shakier than we\u2019d like to admit. It\u2019s time to dial back the dogma and invest in better data\u2014because if we\u2019re underestimating volcanic CO2 by this much, what else are we missing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Folks, hold onto your hats\u2014two groundbreaking studies dropped this past month, and they\u2019re shaking up everything we thought we knew about carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth\u2019s atmosphere. The first, from\u00a0The University of Manchester, reveals that volcanic CO2 emissions could be\u00a0three times higher\u00a0than previously estimated. The second, from the\u00a0School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), uncovers a staggering 19,325 previously unknown undersea volcanoes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":378995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829997,691835200,691835204,691834737,691835202,691819111,691835201,691818448],"class_list":{"0":"post-378992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-carbon-dioxide-co","9":"tag-earths-carbon-cycle","10":"tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology-soest","11":"tag-sulfur-dioxide-so2","12":"tag-the-university-of-manchester","13":"tag-undersea-volcanoes","14":"tag-usgs-volcano-hazards-program","15":"tag-volcanoes","17":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/00ChatGPT-Image-20.-Mai-2025-18_01_47.png?fit=1024%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1AAM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":254850,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=254850","url_meta":{"origin":378992,"position":0},"title":"Bingo front row, 19k undersea volcanoes \u201cdiscovered\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/04\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A team of oceanographers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, working with a colleague from Chungnam National University and another from the University of Hawaii, has mapped 19,000 previously unknown undersea volcanoes in the world\u2019s oceans using radar satellite data.","rel":"","context":"In \"Carbon dioxide\"","block_context":{"text":"Carbon dioxide","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0file-20220121-23-1dp1cjj.webp?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0file-20220121-23-1dp1cjj.webp?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0file-20220121-23-1dp1cjj.webp?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0file-20220121-23-1dp1cjj.webp?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0file-20220121-23-1dp1cjj.webp?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":282311,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=282311","url_meta":{"origin":378992,"position":1},"title":"Rock Weathering as a CO\u2082 Sink Or?: A New Perspective","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"From Watts Up With That? In a recent study led by the University of Oxford, the traditional view of natural rock weathering as a CO\u2082 sink has been challenged. Contrary to popular belief, rock weathering can also act as a significant CO\u2082 source, on par with the emissions from volcanoes.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0rocks.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0rocks.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0rocks.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0rocks.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0rocks.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":270990,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=270990","url_meta":{"origin":378992,"position":2},"title":"What NASA and the European Space Agency are admitting but the media are failing to report about our current heat wave","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world\u2019s leading scientific organizations. 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From NoTricksZone By\u00a0Kenneth Richard\u00a0on\u00a012. October 2023 For decades rock weathering has been thought to be a net sink in carbon budget models. New research finds rock emissions are a large\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Atmosphere\"","block_context":{"text":"Atmosphere","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=atmosphere"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/02ef639199aab71f9db6432bcb7e1d116.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/02ef639199aab71f9db6432bcb7e1d116.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/02ef639199aab71f9db6432bcb7e1d116.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/02ef639199aab71f9db6432bcb7e1d116.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/02ef639199aab71f9db6432bcb7e1d116.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378992"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378997,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378992\/revisions\/378997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/378995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}