•The severity of Hurricane Andrew can also be blamed by Mount Pinatubo’s climate change.
Unusual jet stream patterns had occurred the summer after Pinatubo’s eruption.
Falling of sulfuric acid into the Pacific Ocean triggered El Nino, furthering the changes in jet stream patterns.
HAZARD MAP
The Hazard Map below is actually a combination of two separate maps. It is so because there are two fators to consider when considering the posibility of future climate changes due to volcanic eruptions.
The first factor that should be considered is the locations of potential volcanic eruptions. Below is a map representing all of the Earth's major active volcanoes, represented by the red triangles. The Pacific Ring of Fire shows up rather clear on the left.
The next map below is of the Polar Jet Stream, that is, the major jet stream of the northern hemisphere. A jet stream is the name given to bands of high speed upper atmospheric winds that span the globe. The jet streams are constantly shifting, but generally follow a spacific direction, such as west to east in the northern hemisphere. These are the winds that could transfer the volcanic ash of the large strotovolcanic ash around the world. The map below is an example of how the jet stream was oriented (grey areas) on 19 April, 2006. If there had been a major eruption that day in the northern hemisphere, this map would show the distribution of upper atmospheric dust as well.
