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Catastrophic Flooding From Ancient Lake May Have Triggered Cold Period
Newswise ^ | 12-18-2004 | Jeff Donnelly

Posted on 12/18/2004 11:51:06 AM PST by blam

Catastrophic Flooding from Ancient Lake May Have Triggered Cold Period

CLIMATE CHANGE, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION, JEFF DONNELLY, ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE

Newswise — Imagine a lake three times the size of the present-day Lake Ontario breaking through a dam and flooding down the Hudson River Valley past New York City and into the North Atlantic. The results would be catastrophic if it happened today, but it did happen some 13,400 years ago during the retreat of glaciers over North America and may have triggered a brief cooling known as the Intra-Allerod Cold Period.

Assistant Scientist Jeffrey Donnelly of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution presented the findings at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco today. Donnelly and colleagues analyzed data from sediment cores, walrus fossils and pollen to precisely date the discharge from Glacial Lake Iroquois down the Hudson River Valley at 13,350 years ago. The flood waters broke through a spot of land where the Verazanno Narrows Bridge now stands to reach the North Atlantic.

The discharge of glacial freshwater into the North Atlantic has long been thought to drive fluctuations in past climate because the huge volume of freshwater would alter thermohaline circulation in the ocean. Directly linking discharge events with individual climatic changes has been difficult because of the challenges in pinpointing the location, timing and amount of the discharge.

The Intra-Allerod Cold Period lasted only about 150 years and occurred just before the Younger Dryas, a sudden cold climate period lasting some 1,200 years and ending about 11,000 years ago. Many scientists believe the Younger Dryas was caused by the shutdown of the Gulf Stream in response to a sudden influx of fresh water from deglaciation in North America. Global climate would then have become locked into the new state until freezing removed the fresh water "lid" from the North Atlantic Ocean.

The team compared their evidence for the massive flood down the Hudson Valley with data from sediment cores taken from the Cariaco Basin off Venezuela in the Caribbean, which show a slowing of thermohaline circulation and heat transport into the North Atlantic at that same time.

Donnelly and his colleagues were able to determine the timing of this event by analyzing data from sediment cores from the Hudson River Valley and the continental shelf. Sediment samples collected near the Tappan Zee Bridge indicate that ocean water flooded the lower Hudson Valley just after the flood event occurred. Pollen data from the first marine sediments deposited near the Holland Tunnel correlate with those from radiocarbon-dated sediments from nearby Sutherland Pond in New York and provide further constraint on the timing of the flood. Walrus remains recovered from gigantic sediment lobes deposited offshore during the flood were carbon dated to further pinpoint a precise time period.

Large rocks the size of Volkswagens, also associated with these sediment lobes, have been photographed on the outer continental shelf off the mouth of the Hudson River, where sediments normally are the size of grains of sand or smaller. Donnelly says the large rocks most likely came from the melting glacier and were carried down to the Atlantic in the floodwaters.

Glacial Lake Iroquois, in the same location and about three times the size as modern day Lake Ontario, was formed as the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded from its maximum extent along southern Long Island, New York, and northern New Jersey to southern Canada from about 21,000 to 13,000 years ago. Several other glacial lakes, Glacial Lake Albany and Glacial Lake Vermont, existed for several thousand years and deposited thick layers of silt and clay in the Hudson River Valley and Champlain Lowlands.

Donnelly says a dam north of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York holding back the ancient lake collapsed, allowing lake water to drain into the Hudson River Valley and the North Atlantic, dropping the level of Glacial Lake Iroquois some 120 meters (about 400 feet). Following the collapse of Glacial Lake Iroquois, another lake, Glacial Lake Candona, formed in the Ontario, Saint Lawrence and Champlain Lowlands, controlled in level by a sill or rock dam near Fort Ann, Vermont.

Lake Candona existed only about 100 to 200 years before it drained to the Atlantic when the ice sheet blocking the St. Lawrence Valley collapsed. Following the drainage of Lake Candona, seawater invaded the St. Lawrence and Champlain Lowlands and formed the Laurentian Seaway and the Champlain Sea. Glacial Lake Candona dropped about 40 meters (125 feet) as it drained into the North Atlantic via the Saint Lawrence River Valley. This opening of the St. Lawrence Valley as a conduit for glacial meltwater about 13,000 years ago likely played a role in causing the onset of the Younger Dryas cold interval.

The team will publish the results of the complete study in the February 2005 issue of the journal Geology. Donnelly's research was funded by the Postdoctoral Scholar Program, The John E. and Anne W. Sawyer Endowed Fund, The J. Lamar Worzel Assistant Scientist Fund, and the Ocean and Climate Change Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, independent marine research and engineering and higher education organization located in Falmouth, MA. Its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, the Institution operates the US National Deep Submergence Facility that includes the deep-diving submersible Alvin, a fleet of global ranging ships and smaller coastal vessels, and a variety of other tethered and autonomous underwater vehicles. WHOI is organized into five departments, interdisciplinary institutes and a marine policy center, and conducts a joint graduate education program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: acrossatlanticice; ancient; archaeology; brucebradley; catastrophic; catastrophism; channeledscablands; clarkforkriver; climatechange; cold; dennisstanford; flooding; ggg; glaciers; godsgravesglyphs; history; iceage; lake; lakemissoula; period; solutreans; triggered; youngerdryas
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1 posted on 12/18/2004 11:51:08 AM PST by blam
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To: SunkenCiv; RightWhale

GGG Ping.


2 posted on 12/18/2004 11:52:09 AM PST by blam
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To: blam

Photos?

< |:)~


3 posted on 12/18/2004 11:53:55 AM PST by martin_fierro (Harsh not my mellow)
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To: blam

Yeah, this happened to me once.

My fridge went on the blink, and all the ice in the freezer melted and ran down into the fridge. The temperature in the fridge dropped dramatically, freezing everything for months.























Think about it.


4 posted on 12/18/2004 11:57:54 AM PST by watchin (Democratic Party - the political wing of the IRS)
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To: farmfriend


5 posted on 12/18/2004 12:02:48 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Make all taxes truly voluntary)
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To: martin_fierro
"Photos?"

Destroyed in the flood.

6 posted on 12/18/2004 12:03:11 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

bump


7 posted on 12/18/2004 12:03:46 PM PST by VOA
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To: blam; abbi_normal_2; Ace2U; adam_az; Alamo-Girl; Alas; alfons; alphadog; amom; AndreaZingg; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
8 posted on 12/18/2004 12:11:11 PM PST by farmfriend ( Congratulation. You are everything we've come to expect from years of government training.)
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To: blam
I can hardly wait for that February report.
Maps, diagrams and other illustrations can clarify this fascinating story in a way words simply can't.

I can't help commenting that this is the sort of stuff National Geographic should be doing instead of being a political mouthpiece for PC, femenism, global warming and all the other useless crap they have been concentrating on for the last 20 years!

9 posted on 12/18/2004 12:12:38 PM PST by Publius6961 (The most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.)
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To: blam

This must have left quite an impression on the local indian populations.


10 posted on 12/18/2004 12:26:23 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Time to let slip the dogs...)
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To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SunkenCiv; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 4ConservativeJustices; ...
Thanks blam. Any FR topics on the channeled scablands flood event?
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

11 posted on 12/18/2004 12:27:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: blam

humorous that the guy's name is "Donnelly". ;')


12 posted on 12/18/2004 12:29:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: blam

dig deeper later


13 posted on 12/18/2004 12:33:27 PM PST by sawmill trash (If America is to have illegal weeds , lets start with poison ivy !!!!)
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To: Publius6961
[ I can't help commenting that this is the sort of stuff National Geographic should be doing instead of being a political mouthpiece for PC, femenism, global warming and all the other useless crap they have been concentrating on for the last 20 years! ]

Exactly..
pBS = Public Propaganda System..

14 posted on 12/18/2004 12:33:52 PM PST by hosepipe (This Propaganda has been edited to include not a small amount of Hyperbole..)
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To: watchin

I agree. Their theory sounded bogus right off.


15 posted on 12/18/2004 12:53:57 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: blam
Verrry Interesting...

I believe this happened aprox. the same time in the Midwest.. In what is present North Dakota, South Dakota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan..
That Glacial Lake is referred to as Lake Agassis (sp?) ( pronounced, "Ag-ah-see"..)
I once thought it broke to the south, ( which it did, sorta.. ) but it actually broke mainly to the north, into canada..
I believe Lake Agassis is responsible for the large shoals/beds of sand and gravel in Minnesota, which produce some of the most beautiful agate in my memory..

16 posted on 12/18/2004 12:54:43 PM PST by Drammach (Freedom; not just a job, it's an adventure..)
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channeled scablands:

Experts Seek Trail to Mark Ice Age Floods (National Park Service Study)
Yahoo News ^ | 11/10/03 | Joseph B. Frazier - AP
Posted on 11/10/2003 7:55:28 PM PST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1018958/posts

Sky-High Icebergs Carried Boulders From The Rockies
To In South-Central Washington
Science Daily ^ | 11-4-2003 | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Posted on 11/05/2003 6:29:54 AM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1015159/posts

[added this to the GGG catalog, but didn't ping, and won't include 'em in this week's digest 'coz I've just finished fooling with the file]


17 posted on 12/18/2004 12:55:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: hosepipe

A glacier an average of 1 mile thick covered half of North America and it melted over a fairly short time period.

It was all fresh water and it all ended up in the Ocean.

Big deal if a big lake suddenly flooded into the North Atlantic. The ice age glacier melted at least a million times that much into the North Atlantic. These researchers need to get their head out of their ...


18 posted on 12/18/2004 12:58:41 PM PST by JustDoItAlways
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To: blam

Calling Al Gore... Calling Al Gore...

Here boy... nice little puppy...

Sit... Stay... now STFU !!!


19 posted on 12/18/2004 1:01:24 PM PST by GeekDejure ( LOL = Liberals Obey Lucifer !!!)
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To: farmfriend

BTTT!!!!!!!


20 posted on 12/18/2004 1:01:32 PM PST by E.G.C.
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