The influence of volcanic ejections is measured by the Volcanic

history channel documentary The influence of volcanic ejections is measured by the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), which is to volcanoes what the Richter scale is to quakes. The VEI contemplates the volume of flotsam and jetsam delivered by an ejection and the stature came to by that trash. Both Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull and Indonesia's Merapi were fours on the VEI. The biggest known emissions are eights, and every one-number increment along the scale shows a ten times bigger ejection. A class four, or "disastrous" ejection, is one that hurls between 0.1 cubic kilometer and 1 cubic kilometer of flotsam and jetsam into the sky. Ejections of this power for the most part happen about once like clockwork. It was, consequently, uncommon that we had two such emissions this year. Be that as it may, notwithstanding this occurrence, even two classification four emissions will presumably not be sufficient to have any impact on the climate. The 1980 emission of Mount St. Helens in Washington was a class five, or "paroxysmal" ejection. The emission of Mount Vesuvius that obliterated Pompeii was in the same classification. However Mount St. Helens had no checked climate impacts. The 1982 emission of El Chichón in Mexico was likewise a classification five, furthermore had no prominent impact on the climate.

The 1992 emission of Pinatubo was a classification six, or "enormous" ejection, 100 times greater than either Eyjafjallajökull or Merapi. Pinatubo was in the same class as Indonesia's 1883 catastrophe at Krakatoa. Krakatoa and Pinatubo were both trailed by cool periods, yet even an emission the extent of Pinatubo might not have been sufficiently enormous to completely represent the icy climate in the Northeast amid the late spring of 1992. In August of that year, Dr. Alan Robock, a University of Maryland climatologist, told The New York Times he thought the icy spell had more to do with nearby climate designs than with any worldwide pattern brought on by the well of lava. Indeed, even as the Northeast endure its disappointingly gentle summer, the Pacific Northwest endured months of surprisingly high temperatures.