Ice Age’s End Triggered Volcanic Eruptions

Physics





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The end of the Ice Age saw a huge increase in eruptions from volcanoes like Eyjafjallajokull as the ice sheets retreated. Erosion may have been a contributing factor to the pressure release that triggered this. Johann Helgason/Shutterstock

At the end of the last Ice Age there was a major increase in volcanic activity. However, a paper in Geophysical Research Letters explains this story doesn't go the way you might be expecting. Not only did the greenhouse gases from the volcanoes warm the planet, the melting ice triggered the volcanic eruptions, and in more ways than we previously realized.