Beam me to The Top of the World !
Posted on 07/01/2008 4:13:57 PM PDT by antonia
A research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has uncovered evidence of explosive volcanic eruptions deep beneath the ice-covered surface of the Arctic Ocean. Such violent eruptions of splintered, fragmented rock--known as pyroclastic deposits -- were not thought possible at great ocean depths because of the intense weight and pressure of water and because of the composition of seafloor magma and rock.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Bush’s fault in 3, 2, 1...
Yes, I’m thinking that active volcanoes can most definitely cause rapid melting of the ice a lot faster than my car, and I suspect I’m not alone!
Once again we find that those who claim to be all knowing, really don't now everything anything.
Wonder what we are going to have to give up next to prevent this from continuing?
How many threads now? 10? Now? 11? Now? 12?
And the ice cap is melting because.......?
And the ice cap is melting because.......?
I’m wondering if the lack of drilling oil out of the earth might be adding to the fury of the volcanoes?
just askin’.
Precisely when are they saying this eruption occurred? “Relatively recent” could mean a million years ago or it could mean last month.
What would the ocean floor there look like if Russia was setting off nukes under the ice cap?
Great movie! A true sci-fi classic.
"Negotiating an underwater tunnel [beneath the ice] to gain the island's interior, those aboard U-33 are amazed to discover a tropical prehistoric world kept warm by volcanic forces. Here dinosaurs that should be long extinct live and roam, as do a curious race of humanoid savages that appear to exhibit all the various phases of Man's evolutionary development. To survive long enough to repair and replenish the U-boat, wartime enemies must put aside their differences and cooperate with one another. But not everyone is playing from the Kumbaya songbook... The Land That Time Forgot is a thoroughly old fashioned sci-fi/fantasy adventure of the type they weren't really making anymore even in 1975. A lot of this has to do with the script sticking to Burroughs' Victorian style. (His Caprona tales were first published in 1918; as late as World War II he'd still be cranking out novels in the writing style of the 19th Century.) The film's a throwback to the likes of the original King Kong and potboilers such as Unknown Island (1948) and The Land Unknown (1957), only in color."
http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies/land_time_forgot.htm
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Volcanic eruptions reshape Arctic ocean floor: study
June 25, 2008 | AFP
Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday.
The eruptions -- as big as the one that buried Pompei -- took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.
Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms.
But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts finally got a first-ever glimpse of the ocean floor 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) beneath the Arctic pack ice, they were astonished.
What they saw was unmistakable evidence of explosive eruptions rather than the gradual secretion of lava bubbling up from Earth's mantle onto the ocean floor.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080625/sc_afp/sciencegeologyoceansvolcano
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From Ohio State University News, Dec 2007...
EARTH'S HEAT ADDS TO CLIMATE CHANGE TO MELT GREENLAND ICE
COLUMBUS , Ohio -- Scientists have discovered what they think may be another reason why Greenland 's ice is melting: a thin spot in Earth's crust is enabling underground magma to heat the ice.
They have found at least one “hotspot” in the northeast corner of Greenland -- just below a site where an ice stream was recently discovered.
The researchers don't yet know how warm the hotspot is. But if it is warm enough to melt the ice above it even a little, it could be lubricating the base of the ice sheet and enabling the ice to slide more rapidly out to sea.
Well I blame global warming...
That's easy! We are drilling for more oil, and it's OBVIOUSLY causing pressure issues with the planet's core!
So the natural thing to do is...
Wait for it...
STOP DRILLING!
just a ping;)
ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2007) - Last month, UAF researcher Katey Walter brought a National Public Radio crew to Alaska's North Slope, hoping to show them examples of what happens when methane is released when permafrost thaws beneath lakes.
When they reached their destination, Walter and the crew found even more than they bargained for: a lake violently boiling with escaping methane.
" It was cold, wet and windy. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a helicopter and paddled out to a huge methane plume in the middle of the lake with no idea what to expect, how strong the bubbling plume would be, whether or not our raft would stay afloat, how dangerous it would be to breath the gas," said Walter, an assistant professor in UAF's Institute of Northern Engineering and International Arctic Research Center. "The violent streams of bubbles made the lake appear as if it were boiling, but the water was pretty cold."
Walter studies methane emissions from arctic lakes, especially the connection between thawing permafrost and climate change. As permafrost around a lake's edges thaws, the organic material in it--dead plants and animals--can enter the lake bottom, where bacteria convert it to methane, which bubbles into the atmosphere, sometimes in a spectacular fashion. Methane is much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
“It is unlikely that this methane plume was related to permafrost thaw,” said Walter, adding that the methane boiling out of the lake was more likely related to natural gas seepage. “Should large quantities of methane be released from methane hydrates, for instance, in association with permafrost thaw, then we could have large sudden increases in atmospheric methane with potentially large affects on global temperatures.
Two thoughts:
First, the potential for natural gas extraction are immense. And why not drill and extract it? It's going to escape anyway and nothing we can do about it.
And second, don't light any matches!
I cut a lot of slack for vulcanologists. Their work is just insanely dangerous, between invisible heat plumes, invisible gases, unpredictable eruptions, flying debris, razor sharp glass-like lavas, splashing lavas, steam explosions, etc.
Deep underwater, where concussions are transmitted over long distances, you could die so quick it’s not even funny.
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