In 1991, a sleeping giant awoke with a roar.
Mount Pinatubo, a volcano in the Philippines
that had lain dormant for more than 500 years,
produced one of the most violent eruptions of
the twentieth century. At its climax, the eruption
blew off the top of the mountain, ejecting between
8 and 10 square kilometers of material.
Floods of lava spewed out, and hundreds of cubic
meters of sand- and gravel-sized debris rained
down on the mountain’s upper slopes.
Before the eruption, many people lived on
the mountain’s forested lower slopes. Early rumblings
warned geologists of the impending eruption,
and more than 50,000 people were
evacuated. But several hundred people died as
roofs collapsed under the weight of falling ash.
Villages were destroyed and tens of thousands
suffered the effects of mudslides, ash-clogged
rivers, and crop devastation.
Reverberations were also felt globally. The
volcano sent a vast plume of sulfur dioxide gas
and dust high into the atmosphere—some 15 to
20 million tons. A haze of sulfuric acid droplets
spread throughout the stratosphere over the year
following the eruption. These particles, though
tiny, had an important impact on the global climate.
They reduced the sunlight reaching the
Earth’s surface by 2 to 3 percent for the year, and
average global temperatures fell by about 0.3°C
(0.5°F).
Our planet’s atmosphere is a dynamic system
that responds readily to many types of change,
and we must keep a close watch on the natural
and artificial phenomena that can perturb it.