Researchers studying the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai eruption found that the volcanic plume actively broke down methane. A combination of volcanic ash, salty seawater, and sunlight created reactive chlorine atoms that destroyed the potent greenhouse gas as the plume drifted.
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Interesting find on the Hunga Tonga eruption. It looks like the mix of salt and ash acted as a catalyst to break down methane. Worth reading to see how this might change our global methane budget calculations.
If the natural methane budget is actually lower because of these events, it changes the baseline for emissions accounting. We need to know if this is a rare fluke or a systemic underestimation in current models.
The article mentions removing 900 megagrams a day, which is a drop in the bucket compared to total global emissions. Do we have a realistic timeline for when this chemistry could be scaled into actual industrial tech?
Probably not soon. Replicating a volcanic plume in the open atmosphere without causing other chemical imbalances seems like a massive execution risk.
