Since 1999 volcanoes have been erupting 13,000 feet under the Arctic ice cap.?

Question

Could this be the reason the ice cap is melting so fast? Could it be happening beneath Antartica also? Would this cause global warming? How can you stop an underwater volcano?

Answer 1

No, volcanoes are not causing the Arctic ice cap to melt. There are a few submarine volcanoes along the Gakkel Ridge (Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge, north of Iceland), but they are not able to melt the Arctic ice cap.

A big volcanic eruption of Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano beneath the Vatnajokull Glacier (Europe's biggest glacier) melted small parts part of the glacier in 2004, have a look at the pictures on BBC, you will appreciate that a million Grimsvotn volcanoes would be needed to melt the Arctic ice cap; if there were a million Grimsvotn volcanoes we would know about it.

Increasing atmospheric temperatures above the Arctic ice confirms that the mild weather is melting the ice, not subsurface volcanic activity. Not only that we know the cause, NASA found that sea level (tropospheric) Ozone pollution is a contributing to the Arctic warming, Ozone converts UV light into heat, warming the air.

Lastly, there is no way to stop a subglacial eruption, so the Icelanders don't build near the Vatnajokull Glacier, the few roads and bridges in the region are inevitably washed away every decade or so by the melt water generated by Grimsvotn (which can exceed the volume of the Amazon in full flood for a few days). They have a wonderful name for the flood, "Jokulhlaups", a word that sounds just like the muddy flood. They just rebuild after a Jokulhlaup.

Read: "NASA - NASA Study Links "Smog" to Arctic Warming"

Answer 2

Most of the volcanoes in the world are underwater.  It is just a natural part of the carbon cycle and contributes CO2.  They have been erupting for billions of years so it shouldn't be a worry.