Increase in volcanic activity is linked to ice melted by global warming

The commentary on this article is pretty lively, too. Worth a look, from the Times (UK): Increased volcanic activity is linked to ice melted by the effects of global warming, a study has found. So much ice in Iceland has melted in the past century that the pressure on the land beneath has lessened, which allows more of the rock deep in the ground to turn to magma. Until the ice melted, the pressure was so intense that the rock remained solid.

Carolina Pagli, of the University of Leeds, led research which calculated that over the past century the production of magma had increased by 10 per cent. The research team, reporting their findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, said an extra 1.4 cu km of magma has been created under the Vatnajökull ice-cap in the past 100 years….

NASA image of Vatnajökull glacier, Wikimedia Commons