Broken Ice Dam Blamed For 300-Year Chill

New Scientist ^ | 1-10-2006 | Kurt Kleiner

[RightWhale]

They say the water broke out to the north rather than down the St Lawrence and Mississippi. Is that what you get from this?

[GaltMeister]

But they were 'Sport Utility Ice Dams'.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

I believe this period is known as the Older Dryas.

[phoenix0468]

I like how the author slipped in the "global warming" comment. Jeez.

[mtbopfuyn]

Oh no! A whole degree cooler!

[Vaquero]

Yes and that could make sense too.

[Alberta's Child]

I read a fascinating article about a similar "climate catastrophe" in the Hudson River valley in what is now New York State at the end of the last ice age, in which a natural berm or ice dam burst and sent a torrent of water, ice, rock, etc. down to the Atlantic Ocean.

The evidence for this type of event was found out along the continental shelf off the coast of New Jersey, in the form of large rocks scattered on the ocean floor that are indigenous to the Adirondack Mountains -- hundreds of miles away from the mouth of the Hudson River.

[Cicero]

"We shoulda signed the Kyoto Treaty!"

[RightWhale]

Was global warming or global cooling associated with the Ice Age? Could it not have been more of a regional phenomenon?

[SittinYonder]

I like how the author slipped in the "global warming" comment. Jeez.

Just like the History Channel's show on the "little ice age" that was on this past Sunday. Interesting show, but the political agenda revealed at the end called into question everything that had previously been said.

[Theophilus]

Three words: Rove, Cheney & Bush!

[Vaquero]

and of course the Hudson canyon remains today under the ocean wending along.......a trench that goes hundreds of miles out into the Atlantic before it ends at the dropoff of the continental shelf.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

The fault of Bush's environmental policies.

[blam]

"They say the water broke out to the north rather than down the St Lawrence and Mississippi. Is that what you get from this?"

Yes. They were dammed up and broken a couple times. The biggest flood went north into the Hudson Bay...the ice sheet that was on the largest lake, became boyant, broke and slid into Hudson Bay causing gawd awful tsunamis.

Once this 'chill' period was over, the Ice Age melt resumed unhindered.
It was just after this period that the Mediterranean reflooded and eventually broke the dam at the Bosporus and flooded the Black Sea.(Noah's Flood?)

[hispanarepublicana]

[phoenix0468]

I saw some of that and found it quite interesting. I guess I am fortunate I missed the ending.

[brytlea]

ROFL!
susie

[djf]

There's alot of interesting geology in New York. There is a place near where I grew up where the shale bedrock is exposed, and you can see the grooves cut in the rock from the glaciers.

Alot of New York was at one time, submerged. Some of the largest salt deposits in the world are buried in the western part of the state.

[xcamel]

There was also a glacial dam that broke in Idaho/Washington of similar size, at about the same time. (the name of that event escapes me) but the "Lake Iroquois" event has been well documented for 100 years.