Could a Changing Climate Set Off Volcanoes and Quakes?

Yale University Enviornment 360 ^ | May 7, 2012 | Fred Pearce

[Puckster]

Politicians care...a la Obama, Mitt, Julia Gillard.....that should concern you.

Power.....to transform your life whether you want it or not.

It is the new Religion.

[monocle]

Once the vapor pressure of a liquid equals atmospheric pressure that liquid boils and temperature remains constant. By increasing atmospheric pressure a higher boiling temperature results. Some solids, such as carbon dioxide, do not pass through a liquid phase and sublimate to the gaseous phase.

[SpaceBar]

Don't beat yourself up over it, but just to elaborate a bit, mantle derived material in a semisolid state e.g. magma behaves a lot like a really dirty chemical slag/slurpy with crystals suspended in a chemical soup or melt composed primarily of the oxides of silicon, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, with various crystaline materials going in and out of existence depending on the p,T conditions and local chemical composition. Change any one of those variables and the system will attempt to readjust. Lowering pressure can lower the solidus curve of stable phases in temperature and cause an otherwise stable mineral to melt because it is now superheated, perhaps with some other phase taking its place. By this mechanism, rocks can "evolve" from mantle peridotite to highly evolved granites. Adding water or volatile components further complicates the idealized behavior of simple thermodynamic models.

[melsec]

chicken/egg?

[ArcadeQuarters]

> says a British geologist Bill McGuire

Missing out on all the global warming grants, eh? I’ll create a new section on my bookshelf between “Buy this book or the terrorists will win” and “Buy this book or you’ll die in Y2K.”

[Smokin' Joe]

I thought one set of scientific ideas which were pretty well settled dealt with tectonic activity, and the driving heat flow from the mantle.

Increase that heat flow, increase plate motion and volcanism.

While all that continental jostling, erupting, and formation of new ocean floor is going on, it might affect the surface weather a tad.

However, saying the weather affects tectonic activity, is a bit like saying loud exhaust noise makes the engine rev higher.

[FreedomPoster]

Wow. This was satire just a day ago, and already here’s some idiot who is serious about it.

Anthropogenic Continental Drift: An Incoherent Truth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2881104/posts

The above is hugely entertaining, by the way.

[Explorer89]

Aha! I do remember the triple-point! :) And thank you for not smacking me for being a dolt.

And, I love the use of the word slag: I grew up in an area well populated by slag dumps from the local steel mills.

[moose07]

Bookmark,11:40

[Vaquero]

...Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
...Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
...The dead rising from the grave!
....Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

[Izzy Dunne]

“Buy this book or you’ll die in Y2K.”

By the way, you should realize that since all the computers have been reprogrammed with 4-digits for the YEAR, that there is a Y10k problem.

Look for the books any time now.

[monocle]

Good paving material!

[jimfree]

I’ll bite. Okay, what are the physics behind such a response?

[soycd]

>So how scared should we be?

There is the money line. I’d say this nutcase needs only a few million dollars of fear generated cash.

[DH]

Well! This should scare the hell out of the sheep and timid thinkers.

Our only solution is more green policies and the only ones who can do it are socialists and progressives.

[Chode]

gee, i thought it was the other way round...

[rbg81]

I’m going to publish a paper that says climate change will make it more likely for large meteors to hit the Earth. I’m sure I’ll get millions of $$ in Government research grants after that lulu.

[InterceptPoint]

Confusing cause and effect to line their pockets with grant money. "Scientific" prostitution.

You beat me to it. They have cause and effect completely backwards.

[Condor51]

This guy is nuts. The end.

[dfwgator]

Could a Changing Climate Make Monkeys Fly Out of My Butt?