Krakatoa's signature persists in the ocean (original) (raw)

Volcanoes and climate

Nature volume 439, page 675 (2006) Cite this article

This huge eruption slowed sea-level rise and ocean warming well into the following century.

Abstract

We have analysed a suite of 12 state-of-the-art climate models and show that ocean warming and sea-level rise in the twentieth century were substantially reduced by the colossal eruption in 1883 of the volcano Krakatoa in the Sunda strait, Indonesia. Volcanically induced cooling of the ocean surface penetrated into deeper layers, where it persisted for decades after the event. This remarkable effect on oceanic thermal structure is longer lasting than has previously been suspected1 and is sufficient to offset a large fraction of ocean warming and sea-level rise caused by anthropogenic influences.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 52 print issues and online access

$199.00 per year

only $3.83 per issue

Buy this article

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

Figure 1: Simulations with and without volcanic forcing (1880–2000).

The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Church, J. A., White, N. J. & Arblaster, J. M. Nature 438, 74–77 (2005).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
  2. Levitus, S., Antonov, J. I. & Boyer, T. P. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L02604 doi:10.1029/2004GL021592 (2005).
    ADS Google Scholar
  3. AchutaRao, K. M. et al. J. Geophys. Res. (in the press).
  4. Delworth, T. L., Ramaswamy, V. & Stenchikov, G. L. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L24709 (2005).
    Article ADS Google Scholar
  5. Robock, A. Rev. Geophys. 38, 191–219 (2000).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
  6. Barnett, T. P. et al. Science 309, 284–287 (2005).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, 94550, California, USA
    P. J. Gleckler, B. D. Santer, K. AchutaRao & K. E. Taylor
  2. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, 80307-3000, Colorado, USA
    T. M. L. Wigley
  3. Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, PO Box 243, Reading, RG6 6BB, UK
    J. M. Gregory
  4. Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, UK
    J. M. Gregory

Authors

  1. P. J. Gleckler
  2. T. M. L. Wigley
  3. B. D. Santer
  4. J. M. Gregory
  5. K. AchutaRao
  6. K. E. Taylor

Corresponding author

Correspondence toP. J. Gleckler.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gleckler, P., Wigley, T., Santer, B. et al. Krakatoa's signature persists in the ocean.Nature 439, 675 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/439675a

Download citation

This article is cited by

Editorial Summary

Blast from the past

The 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in Indonesia has echoed down the centuries in art and in legend. Now an analysis of a suite of 12 climate models shows that Krakatoa also made its presence felt well into the twentieth century in the form of reduced ocean warming and sea-level rise. The changes lasted much longer than was previously suspected and were sufficient to offset much of the ocean warming and sea-level rise caused by more recent human activities.