Time-Resolution of Climate Change Monitoring Volcanic Cycles, Stromboli, Ocean Floor Biota and Pandemics (?)

Abstract

Climate change is an ongoing, poorly understood and disquieting challenge. The primary drivers are debated. Clear evidence is however suggestive of a time variation of the planetary release of endogenous energy. In fact, soil exhalation is an unprecedented challenge for humankind, as a phenomenon of this kind happens only every 27.40.05 Ma, while human history spans only the last 30,0000 years. Therefore, there is need for a quantitative and objective monitoring of climate change with high time resolution. It is here shown that Stromboli is a natural probe suited for such a purpose. More in detail, a general perception of phenomena clearly envisages an ever increasing climate variability, including more frequent extremes and catastrophic events. But no quantitative monitoring is available with some given time-resolution. In fact, no mean global temperature can be defined, even though it is unlikely that one index alone can be representative of a planetary phenomenon. Sea-level or glacier extension are affected by a huge number of drivers can be locally interpreted in several different ways, resulting into unreliable proxies. Planetary seasonal maps of atmospheric CO2 concentration provided by the NASA satellite OCO-2 have shown that - in contrast with the often claimed paradigm - compared to soil exhalation the anthropic CO2 plays a negligible role. In addition, based on evidence given by the Hawai’i volcanism, huge time-variations of release of endogenous heat certainly occurred several times with peaks at a pace of 27.40.05 Ma, reminding about an electrocardiogram. On the occasion of every heartbeat, a great extinction struck the biosphere, often involving mainly oceanic biota. Hence, there is urgent need to monitor phenomena in better detail, in order to avoid that the humans are the subject of the next extinction. At present, the Earth is experiencing one peak of a heartbeat, even though we cannot know whether the maximum already occurred or not. The focus is here on volcanism, that however - owing to the highly uneven and inhomogeneous historical record - has always been underestimated. In contrast, it can be shown that volcanism is a significant proxy of the time-variation of the planetary release of endogenous energy. An important evidence is that the present variability of volcanic activity is found to be synchronous all over the globe. Therefore, even one volcano alone can be a reliable and objective gauge of the time-variation of planetary exhalation of endogenous energy. There is only need to assess the available time-resolution of a quantitative monitoring. It is here shown that Stromboli, owing to its peculiar morphology, can be likened to an effective natural probe that monitors the time-variation of endogenous energy supply with a time resolution of a few days. Hence, the systematic exploitation and use of Stromboli as a natural monitoring facility is recommended, being the present unique possible quantitative way to monitor, with a high time-resolution, the time-variation of the primary driver of climate change associated to endogenous energy. An additional gauge can be, maybe, represented by the microorganisms that are endemically generated at ocean floors that can perhaps justify the time evolution of pathogens maybe also some pandemics. In fact, the mutation of deep ocean biota can be, perhaps, related to the evolution of pathogens that since several decades are well-known to require the updating of all vaccines. In addition, these mutations could also be the possible cause of unprecedented pandemics, that perhaps might even impact at a possibly increasing frequency. An improved capability to detect environmental changes with a higher time-resolution is a prerequisite for understanding and managing also these disquieting and unprecedented threats.