Impact on Climate Volcanic eruptions can also affect climate and weather patterns. This haze, which can remain in the atmosphere for years, reflects the sun's radiation and reduces surface temperatures. For example, more than a year after the April 1815 eruption of Indonesia's Tambora volcano, its effects were felt. The eruption of Tambora ejected 150 times more ash than Mount St. Helens in 1980. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was only an inkling of the destructive potential of a volcanic eruption.
Explosive volcanoes can erupt large quantities of tephra, gases, and aerosols into the atmosphere.
The smallest of these particles are suspended in the atmosphere and are sometimes carried by wind great distances from the immediate site of an eruption. Some of these particles are too small to see. Line the interior of the box with black construction paper or a dark sheet, or spray paint it black. On one side, cut a hole the same size as the lamp end of the flashlight. Remind students that in Lesson 1 they learned that explosive volcanoes like Mount St. Helens erupt rock and lava fragments, gases, and aerosols into the atmosphere.