Monday, December 20, 2010

Volcanic Jet Stream Weather Dragon(s)

If I were living in Tolkien's Middle-Earth I would probably say: The Icelandic Dragon Eyjafjallajokull issued from the top of the mountain, whose roar and breath of fire and smoke was so loud that he awoke the great slumbering Indonesian Dragon the people call Merapa. Rising high on the air currents above their mountain abodes, the two dragons took form within the great winds of the Earth. Their serpent like bodies coiled around the planet. In their rage they soared inside the great mother winds of the Earth, changing the great lands before them...

In Lord of The Rings, Tolkien wrote: "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him"

Unfortunately, this has to be translated back into the analytic language of the current world mind-set, in terms of 'volcanoes', 'volcanic activity', eruptions and how certain key and well positioned volcanoes send their ash clouds directly into the 'Jet Stream', altering weather cycles and climate.

The Jet Stream is said to steer Atlantic low pressure systems. In reality this is a highly complex multi-layered barely understood living dynamic system that cannot be divided into individual parts. The mechanical parts list sun activity, ocean temperatures, La Nina, the Great Ocean Conveyor and volcanic activity (or not).

In April 2010 the ash and particles from the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, in Iceland, were circulated around the globe via the North Atlantic Jet Stream. These climate changing charged particles were rapidly carried in a stream across Europe and into the Middle East. The December 2010 path of cold weather and increased precipitation is similarly following the volcanic ash cloud/particles released in April. I would call this the Dragon's tail.

Severe weather, flooding and unusual snowfall have reached beyond Turkey into drought stricken countries in the Middle East. Lebanon, Egypt and Greece have been pounded by high winds, snow, hail and heavy rain. Isn't that whole area where Eyjafjallajokull's volcanic particles breathed currents of life (charged particles) into the high flowing Jet Stream?

In November, 2010 Mount Merapi in Indonesia began to seriously erupt and those magnetic particles were also carried high into the planet's atmospheric arteries. Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull and Indonesia's Merapi volcanoes are connected to the path of the: Ocean's Thermohaline Conveyor System, resonsible for transporting warm salty waters into the North Atlantic.

Gulf Stream slows 30% in last 50 years

I feel that current volcanic activity around the planet is altering the Earth's weather thermostat in ways we do not yet understand. The biggest part of a volcanic eruption, the Dragon's breath, travels unseen and undetected -- unless there are spectacular sunsets for the eye to see.

The Jet Stream determined the position and direction of the volcanic ash cloud over Europe during the April 2010 eruption. Earth scientists describe the Jet Stream as a concentrated narrow stream of 'strong winds' - but this stream surely has to be a charged magnetic current of the Earth.

Wind (verb), O.E windan - to turn, twist [vortex]; where the wind (noun) means a current of air. Well, what else has a current? Electricity? Magnetism? Electro-magnetic current? Lava-flow? Lightning in volcanic ash plumes?

In the early 90's volcanologists claimed that the Jet Stream stops volcanic ash plumes from rising higher into the atmosphere, they cap the rise of the ash plume and I would say, the Jet Stream transports the ash around the planet (diluting it). In my mind the two forces - Jet stream current and the ash plume current - have to be similar [attract each other].

Why doesn't volcanic ash plume just spread out in a dense cloud and drift around at ground level? Because their current is designed to interact through magnetic attraction to the current in the atmosphere. There is this dynamic electrical highly charged attraction between volcano [Earth] and atmosphere [sky]. It's all magnetism...

Is the recent volcanic venting experienced throughout 2010 a catalyst for the deep winter weather we are seeing?

In my mind the Gulf Stream Current, the Jet Stream and the Great Ocean Conveyor Current have to interact (act together). Obviously they are not unrelated to each other. Therefore, what part does vulcanism play in fine-tuning these regulators of the Earth's climate?

That also means periods of relative inactivity as well as periods of increased volcanic activity, or what could lie ahead: a multi-venting of the planet's volcanoes within shared-venting time periods.

Over the last thousand to two thousand years continents on Earth have experienced low levels of volcanic venting. By that I mean a volcano here, a volcano there with long periods of quiet. We have forgotten as a planetary species what it means to experience: "Lots of them and all at once." As Bilbo Baggins might say.

Mystifying and dangerous, volcanoes also breathe life into the atmosphere. We see them and we hear them; but we barely understand their behaviour and their effects on the world's climate.