What happens if a volcano explodes in Antarctica?

Between August and November 2020 more 85,000 earthquakes shook Antarctica. To this day, the reason is not entirely clear, although it seems to be related to awakening. apparently dormant underwater volcano. It is not clear that he erupted; and if it did, it didn’t hurt. And this leads to some inevitable questions. What happens if a volcano explodes in Antarctica? Is this really something incredible?

At the moment it seems that there is no danger with this. yes it spawned some fairly strong earthquakesbut luckily they did no harm. It’s good that they take place in an uninhabited place, there is not much harm there. Although, of course, scientific objects yes, they can experience the consequences.

In fact, this has already happened in the past. Not with earthquakes, but with volcanoes. AT Deception Islandwhere an expedition formed by Spanish scientists recently took place, in 1970 an eruption occurred, which finished with the Chilean base. But what else do we know about this type of phenomenon? And, above all, is there any danger associated with melting from earthquakes or volcanic eruptions?

Earthquakes on King George Island

The recent earthquake swarm described in the study Connection with nature Earth and environment was discovered for the first time by some scientists who were present on King George Island, in Antarctica.

They wanted to investigate its origin, but it was difficult for them, since it is a small island, with only two nearby seismic stations. For this reason, they contacted other researchers to extract data from the satellite and from other more distant stations. These must have been those who had the appropriate equipment to analyze very distant earthquakes.

So they noticed that in a very short period of time about 85,000 earthquakesbeing the most powerful of magnitude 5.9which occurred in October, and another magnitude 6 which took place in November. In addition, at this time the earth moved about 11 centimeters. This is where doubts arise, since seismic activity could only explain 4% of this displacement. There must have been something else, and the most likely possibility was that it was connected to Mount Orka, a 900-meter underwater volcano located in bransfield straiton the way between the South Shetland Islands, to which King George Island belongs, and the extreme northwest of Antarctica.

magma movement this volcano in the earth’s crust could explain the displacement of the land. In fact, the magnitude 6 earthquake likely created some cracks that relieved the pressure on the magma dam, so it could all be connected. At this time, a volcanic eruption could occur. However, as explained living science Simone Cesarthe author of the study should know for sure send a mission to the straits in which scientists will receive new data on the ground.

What happens if a volcano explodes in Antarctica?

What happened in Antarctica with this swarm of earthquakes is happening in geological time scales. I mean, it’s very rare to see it. But this does not mean that earthquakes in Antarctica are rare.

In fact, even swarms are common. But rarely are they so intense. AT hypertext we talked about it with Rafael Abellaresearcher of the volcanological team National Geographic Institute. “What is unusual is that the swarm is as large as the one that occurred in killer whale volcano“, – he notes. “It’s a pity that this happened right after we removed a lot of tools that we installed over the course of two years from International project Bravoseisled by the University of Granada”.

Without a doubt, this would provide even more data for a deeper study of what happened on King George Island. But what about the volcano? Are there many of them in Antarctica?

“In Antarctica there are several active volcanoesthe two most active are Mount Erebus and Deception Island and both had historic eruptions,” recalls the volcanologist. “After what happened on Deception Island in 1970, there were several seismic crises on the island with tangible earthquakes, but they did not lead to an eruption.”

In the case of Mount Orca, the fact that it is under water may make it less dangerous, but it can still be fixed. “The fact that this is a submarine, depending on the depth, means that may be less dangeroushow could this happen during the 2011 El Hierro volcanic eruption.”

Therefore, a volcanic eruption can occur in Antarctica. Hellish temperatures in one of the coldest places on Earth. Imagination inevitably leads to possible scenarios in which this temperature difference causes disaster. But if a catastrophe happens, it will not be because of this. “The only problem is that you have to break the icebut this is not a problem, lava usually has a temperature of 1000ºC and at the bottom he does not care what is outside at +20ºC than at -20ºCAbella remembers. “affect the thaw but very locally, it will not have a global impact on the possible melting of Antarctica.”

In fact, this is what we have already seen in several volcanic eruption in iceland. So no, none of these hypothetical scenarios would be likely if a volcano erupted in Antarctica. Whether under water or on the surface of the earth.