Posted on 06/11/2019 9:17:23 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In 2016 and 2017, a hole of open water, called a polynya, appeared in the winter ice of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. It eventually grew to about 19,000 square miles; roughly twice the size of Vermont. Though polynyas are not unusual, this large and frequent of a hole was a great opportunity for scientists to figure out why, exactly, these holes were appearing. A team from the University of Washington explored the hole with a combination of robots, radio equipment and seals with antennas stuck to their heads.
The team found that, in order for a polynya to occur, there need to be a perfect storm of factors, so to speak. In the area where the giant polynya opened up, there is an underwater mountain that, when met with strong storms, causes a swirl of sea water, churning saltier water from deeper parts of the ocean up to the top. Once that water is cooled, it falls to the bottom again, and the ice can't re-form.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The scientists were SADDENED that there was no plausible reason to blame humans for the ice melting...
Global Warming is caused by sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.
For the seal, an embarrassment or a status symbol? I do wonder.
It would have been funny of the seals used the antennae to bust through the ice to make holes.
The same look of humiliation my dog had when she wore the cone of shame for a few days.
Am I the only one who read the headline and, before clicking, wondered whether some mutant subspecies of seal had developed antennae? LOL.
Beats a rabbit with a pancake I suppose.
I wonder if they encountered any sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads 🤔
That doesn't make a lot of sense. Salt water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water. With the saltier water at the bottom It would seem that the fresher water at the surface would refreeze.
Need more seals with antennas and a bigger budget.
Angry sea bass with GPS?
No frickin’ lasers?
Badly mismatched in an encounter with a shark...
It's not man-made global warming?
Seals?
I thought mutated ill tempered sea bass were supposed to be used when sharks weren’t available.
Poor little guy, abused by climate scientists.
I tried to make it make sense.
First of all I was not aware sea water was saltier at depths.
Accepting that;
the saltier water combines with less salty water to create saltier water nearer the surface which is then unable to re-form ice.
More questions. Was the ice there as part of the winter ice and then opened up or did it remain open when the winter ice came? I'm asking because the article said the ice can’t re-form.
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