Question: will vesuvius put us in an ice age if it erupts

Kate Dobson answered on 16 Dec 2020:

Vesuvius is unlikely to have an eruption large enough to effect the global climate. Some volcanoes can erupt enough sulfur dioxide during an eruption to effect the climate. The eruption of Tambora (Indonesia) in 1816 is the largest eruption we have historical records of and is through to have cause about 0.5 degrees cooling of the climate and led to the “year without a summer” but the effect was relatively short-lived. The largest eruptions known from the other volcano near Pompeii (Campi Flegrei) might have had an effect but that was 40,000 years ago so we don’t an easy way to tell.