Posted on 12/02/2009 9:26:07 AM PST by SunkenCiv
William Patterson, from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and his colleagues have shown that switching off the North Atlantic circulation can force the Northern hemisphere into a mini 'ice age' in a matter of months. Previous work has indicated that this process would take tens of years.
Around 12,800 years ago the northern hemisphere was hit by a mini ice-age, known by scientists as the Younger Dryas, and nicknamed the 'Big Freeze', which lasted around 1300 years. Geological evidence shows that the Big Freeze was brought about by a sudden influx of freshwater, when the glacial Lake Agassiz in North America burst its banks and poured into the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This vast pulse, a greater volume than all of North America's Great Lakes combined, diluted the North Atlantic conveyor belt and brought it to a halt.
Without the warming influence of this ocean circulation temperatures across the Northern hemisphere plummeted, ice sheets grew and human civilisation fell apart.
(Excerpt) Read more at alphagalileo.org ...
I never bought into the Global Warming Hoax, but after reading this book, I became concerned about the global COOLING going on.
I once heard the author say that experts had called him and told him that IF an ice age did begin that there would be HUNDREDS of stories of snow, which would turn to ice, in places like Manhattan.
What would happen to Canadians if an Ice Age did occur??
>> What would happen to Canadians if an Ice Age did occur??
They’d be cold, eh?
Haven’t read the book, thanks for the tip, I’ll look into it.
People in the future will ask “what Canadians”.
You really have to assume something similar happened in Europe and Asia.
And then it snows.
And keeps snowing. And snowing.
It doesn't stop snowing.
Eventually the 100s upon 100s of feet of snow, covering everything, turns to ICE.
Apparently the first edition of his book brought out critics in droves and many of them severely criticised the cover which was an illustration of houses covered with snow which stretched up some 30-40 feet.
But while the critics acused him of sensationalism, experts wrote him and complained that the 40 feet of snow was all wrong, and that in fact, the day that it started snowing and never stopped, that it would snow HUNDREDS OF STORIES OF SNOW before it stopped snowing.
I never admitted to anyone that I'd read this book, because we are surrounded by True Believers in the Global Warming Hoax.
I’ve found it quite interesting that say, a hundred miles south of one of the Ice Age glaciers, that it was temperate - it wasn’t frigidly cold as one might expect.
(1)Your altitude. The higher you went the colder it would be and the more persistent any glacier formation would be.
(2) Your latitude. The latitudes closest to the poles would be about 4 to 6 degrees F cooler than they are now YEAR ROUND. This would make any glaciers more persistent, and more precipitation would come as snow or ice than as rain.
(3) How close you were to the North American Ice Sheet. That ice sheet was plastic ~ ice flows ~ so it would regularly intrude into regions South, East and West of the central cold core areas. If the region happened to have a desert climate the glacier would simply sublimate away on the margins. If the region happened to have a temperate wet climate, the glacier would melt on the margins, and on the bottom. In the vicinity of Indianapolis, Indiana for most of the last glacial period there was no ice but you could travel 25 miles North of Monument Circle and there'd be the face of an ice sheet 2 miles deep.
It was as busy melting the last day of its existence as it was the first day it got that far South.
The reason is that the area from the confluence of the Great Lakes in the North down to about Bloomington, Indiana is the narrowest thermocline on Earth. During the period of glaciation it was a bit narrower. You could travel from Paducah Kentucky on the Ohio where it was as temperate as modern St. Saint Marie to Kokomo Indiana where it was more like today's Baffin Island.
We know that the ice age climate Southwest of Indianapolis was desert-like ~ all you have to do is check out the depth of the iron dust inside the caves. Still, Mastadons (Columbians in fact) ate hardy just East of the desert ~ I presume the grass grew quite well from the water pouring off the glacier to the North. Once you got over to the Ohio State line it was nothing but wind blown loess for the next 250 miles. South into Kentucky and Tennessee there'd be great grasslands that extended more or less to the Appalachians, and then South to the Gulf Coast plain. East of the mountains there was a great grassy plain stretching out into what is now the ocean for about 200 miles ~ and as far, in spots, as 500 miles. This area extended up to modern Nova Scotia. Parts of that area were never covered by ice by any of the last 20 glaciations even though sea ice extended as far South as New York City all the way to Spain!
:’) I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about anyway, so...
Just because there is nothing like Lake Agassiz today, doesn’t mean there is nothing to worry about. One of the risks of global warming is the total summer melting of the Arctic ice cap. Normally as the Gulf Stream flows north, it hits freezing weather, and the surface water freezes. This concentrates the salt below it making the water heavier so it flows to bottom of the ocean and moves back toward to Equator. This is called the North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO, or North Atlantic Deep Water, NADW. You can Google those terms for more details. Thus, no arctic ice, no significant freezing, and the NAO grinds to a halt. No warm water for the British Isles or Europe. Do you realize how much further north they are than we are.
At any rate, I think the Firestone Book that Sunken Civ has made us aware of is more likely the answer, although I think it could have caused a significant impact on Lake Agassiz too. This book hypothesizes a major boloid strike(s) in North America at the same time, wiping out the megafauna and the Clovis culture. Also there was another big outflow of Agassiz around 8,400 years ago, which may also have had a worldwide inpact
I was talking about the North Atlantic Oscillation by implication in my post. It took an extraordinary event, not likely to occur today, to knock it out in the past.
I was talking about the North Atlantic Oscillation by implication in my post. It took an extraordinary event, not likely to occur today, to knock it out in the past.
In any event it looks like the poles are nice and frigid for now.
Do you have a good site for arial photos of arctic ice over time. While I do tend to believe the Firestone scenario, I also feel we need to be very aware of the NAO danger in the absence of adequate arctic ice. We have had a long sunspot minimum, but if in fact there is an approximate 88 year sunspot cycle, along with the 11 and 22 year cycles, then the next sunspot maximum could reproduce the effects of the Great Depression droughts and heat. If there is more arctic ice now than a few years ago, I hope it is permanent, and not just an artifact of the minimum which could be temporary.
Well there is that proverbial ‘hockey stick’ ready to play a game. Now who will be used as the puck?
This vast pulse, a greater volume than all of North America’s Great Lakes combined, diluted the North Atlantic conveyor belt and brought it to a halt.
Thanks gleeaikin. And you’re right, western Europe is very far north, its habitability largely dependent on the Gulf Stream.
There’s no “global warming” though, merely the Earth’s natural climate, which is dependent on solar output, and is 100 percent natural 100 percent of the time. :’)
I can’t tell you that right now. Say, have you any problem with extreme cold and being smacked into a net?
:’) That’s FR in a nutshell.
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