WHOI study links volcanic eruptions and climate change to ocean decoupling

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have identified an unprecedented breakdown in the climate coupling between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A study published in Nature Communications suggests that while large volcanic eruptions have historically disrupted this relationship, modern anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are now driving an exceptional shift in inter-basin variability.

By analyzing paleoclimate archives—including corals, tree rings, and stalagmites—to reconstruct climate patterns back to the early 1600s, scientists found that the two ocean basins were largely coupled for most of the last four hundred years. The study noted a significant period of decoupling between 1810 and 1850, which researchers linked to a series of major tropical volcanic eruptions that weakened atmospheric connections.

However, the current trend is distinct from historical natural disruptions. Since the 1980s, the co-variability between the two oceans has begun to break down due to human-induced climate change, altering atmospheric and oceanic conditions in ways that deviate from the historical record.