you have been stung by the hot summer headlines. You have viewed the ocean maps that are in furious red. They say the whole story is in the atmosphere, in the greenhouse gases which we are pumping into the atmosphere. But how about it we are lacking a very vital, fiery fragment of the puzzle below? An alarming new line of study is throwing an accusing finger deep under the water, postulating that something we have forgotten is also assisting in raising the temperature: underwater volcanoes.
This isn’t science fiction. It is a complete rethink of the functioning of our world. The sea floor is not a motionless, stable surface. It is a volcanic and dynamic terrain. And when we strain our climate system we are filling a sleeping giant. This could be a discovery that will alter all we have learnt about the marine heatwaves which are suffocating our oceans.
The Irregularity Which could not be explained by logic
This was a case of stunned silence on the part of the scientists last year. The North Atlantic Ocean got into a kind of a fever that it could not shake out of. The temperature of the sea surface shot to almost 1.5degC above average. A preposterous departure that. Climate models, which we use to the best of our ability to predict, ticked their heads. They were not able to explain the heat intensity entirely. The common culprit, man-induced warming, was evidently guilty. Yet it appeared to be having a conspirator.
The evidence was in the water. There was mass death of fish in the Ireland coast. Whales have changed the pre-modern migration patterns. There were algae blooms that were toxic and choked coastal ecosystems. The question became urgent. And where was this additional energy to be obtained? Researchers did not look up, but down in their search of answers.
A Topography of Fire at the Seafloor
Give up the old fashioned symbol of a single mountain in eruption. Submarine volcanism is a wide-spread and extensive process. The longest mountain range of the planet is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It winds along 10,000 miles along the Atlantic. Submarine volcanism is at this point that the crust of the Earth is created and fractures to discharge a continuous, tremendous burst of geothermal energy.
It is not only regarding dramatic lava flows. It is concerning hydrothermal vents. These are deep-sea geysers, which produce super heated, mineral rich water. They serve as radiators of the whole world. It is now thought by scientists that this heat flux is not constant. It’s variable. And it might be increasing.
- Ken Rubin, a volcanologist of the University of Hawaii says, we have grossly underestimated the heat of the seafloor. It is not an information background signal anymore. It is an active participant of ocean thermodynamics.
The Ripple Effect: a Vicious Cycle
It is here where the actual discovery becomes worrying. This is not a different problem with climate change. The two forces are most probably feeding off. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Huge ice sheet melting in Greenland and Antaractica is unloading billions of tons of weight off those continents. This is referred to as isostatic rebound.
Imagine the crust of the earth is a memory foam mattress. As you step down it gradually lifts you up. This backlash is able to alter the forces on magma chambers at great depths. It will be a good way of opening the taps to make more volcanic activities. Thus, our warming climate could be awakening even the same geological forces that are, in turn, warming up our oceans even further.
A Case Study in the Real World: The Hunga Tonga Eruption
It is the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai explosion in 2022 that I remembered. And a dreadful exhibition of seafarthing might. Though its impact on the atmosphere was investigated, its impact on the ocean was significant. The tsunami eliminated an immense quantity of sea water. It introduced approximately 150 million tonnes of vapor of water into the stratosphere.
Water vapor is a powerful green house gas. This singular incident was a dramatic first-hand demonstration of the capacity of a submarine volcano to have a direct impact on the heat budget of the whole planet. It was a shot across the bow. It depicted what the secret fire of the sea can accomplish.
Listening to the Pulse of the Planet
What then do we do with this disturbing fact? First, we must listen. In the present climatic models, the ocean floor is considered to be a cold and stable boundary. They take geothermal heat on a constant figure. According to this new study, number is not right. It’s a dynamic, living system.
We require a deep-sea surveillance system. This must be a fleet of autonomous gliders and permanent seafloor sensors. We are flying in the dark to one of the basic components of our climate system. This is no longer a choice when it comes to investing in this discovery. It is a crucial process to proper forecasting.
- This is the observation made by Dr. Maya Tolstoy, a marine geophysicist when she wrote: The ocean is the heart of our planet. It has arteries which are the seafloor spreading centers. We kept watching the skin and going over the head of the pulse of blood and heat.
A Final, Uncomfortable Truth
This new realization does not relieve us of the hook. Not even close. Fossil fuels continue to be the major cause of climate crisis. However, in this discovery, there is a horrifying new dimension. It is the equivalent of the ancient machinery upon the planet itself being enlisted into the process.
Any tiny bit of warming we are preventing now, is even better. So it is not only the atmosphere that we are stabilizing. We are possibly putting out the fires beneath. The answer is the same: a quick and global adaptation to clean energy. And yet the panic has only been increased. The ocean’s secret is out. The furnace is lit. It’s time we paid attention.