re: Undersea volcanic eruption in Tonga - tsunami hits - US West Coast warned

quote:

---

This probably released more green house gases than all humans in one year

---

I was curious about this. The main greenhouse gases by volume that volcanoes emit when erupting are SO2 and CO2 normally in similar percentages but they can vary depending on the particular type of eruption.

The SO2 release estimate for the Tongan volcano is 400,000 metric tons. So one expects a similar amount of CO2, round that up and so 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses expelled from the eruption.

The amount of CO2 released by passenger cars in a year is roughly 3 billion metric tons. So even if the estimate is off by more than 3 orders of magnitude the eruption is nowhere near passenger cars in greenhouse gas emissions over a year.

Interesting fact: each gallon of gas burned releases 8.887 kg of CO2.

Hurricane gives zero fricks in that scenario

Played a fair bit if rugby with some Tongans, there was a community of them in the mid-cities area of DFW. A lot of them worked for the airport. They were Mormons, so there was/is a big group in Utah as well.

Hope they and their families are well.

quote:

---

Interesting fact: each gallon of gas burned releases 8.887 kg of CO2.

---

The specific gravity of gasoline ranges significantly (meaning: the implied precision of that "fact" is bullshite), but at its heaviest is around 74% of water.

A gallon of water only weighs around 3.8 kg, making a gallon of gas around 2.8kg max.

The majority of that weight is the "O2" part, not the C that is "released".