Chile's volcano not likely to affect the climate It's been a
busy month for natural disasters, and I haven't found time to
talk about Chile's Chaiten volcano, 760 miles (1,220 km) south
of the capital Santiago. The volcano started erupting on May 2
for the first time in thousands of years, spewing ash, gas and
molten rock into the air, forcing the evacuation of thousands of
people. Did this mighty eruption have a cooling effect on the
climate? Figure 1. This May 5, 2008 image from NASA's Terra
satellite caught Chaiten erupting. Image credit: NASA. Many
historic volcanic eruptions have had a major cooling impact on
Earth's climate. However, Chaiten is very unlikely to be one of
them. To see why this is, let's examine recent volcanic
eruptions that have had a significant cooling effect on the
climate. In the past 200 years, Mt. Pinatubo in the Phillipines
(June 1991), El Chichon (Mexico, 1982), Mt. Agung (Indonesia,
1963), Santa Maria (Guatemala, 1902) Krakatoa (Indonesia, 1883),
and Tambora (1815) all created