Steady state large magnitude explosive volcanism for the last five hundred thousand years

Abstract:

For explosive volcanism, a key question is whether the global eruption rate is steady on the scale of hundreds of thousands of years, and, if not, whether the variation in the rate is related to climate. We compare three independent recorders of rates of large magnitude explosive eruptions: from the terrestrial record; from marine tephra layers recovered during ocean drilling; and from sulfate anomalies in ice cores. Data on tephra layers from the terrestrial record are difficult to interpret, but show no obvious signs of rate variability for large eruptions over the last 500 kyr. Data on tephra layers sampled by ocean drilling show that the rate has been effectively unchanged for the last 500 kyr. The rate of large sulfate anomalies in Dome C ice core Antarctica has also been effectively unchanged for the last 200 kyr. Overall, these datasets suggest that the global rate of large magnitude explosive volcanism is approximately constant over the last 500 kyr, and therefore not affected by major climate cycles.