Essan
06-29-03, 09:05 AM
For a while now I've been looking for a climatological model that might explain the distribution of ice during the so-called 'Ice Ages'.
Robert G. Johnson from the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, suggests a mechanism whereby the Laurentide Ice Sheet could have developed without any need for ECD, RTPW or significant change to the Earth's orbit or the Sun's output
http://naturalscience.com/ns/letters/ns_let32.html
Extract:
If the present trend of pack-ice shrinkage continues, this annual increment of freshwater will diminish, and may become insignificant in another 30 years. The consequent increase in surface salinity plus the progressively higher upper-level salinity due to Norwegian Current inflow is expected to sharply increase the density of Arctic Ocean water entering the northern part of Baffin Bay through Lancaster Sound. That higher density will reduce stratification in the bay, and probably allow deep sinking of winter-cooled water to begin in the northern part of the bay a few decades from today. The resulting newly formed deepwater would flow southward out of the bay over the sill at Davis Strait, with saline replacement water entering the bay on the surface from the south. The abrupt development of a regional conveyor belt would then keep the bay free of winter sea ice, resulting in a major atmospheric circulation change. The large winter temperature contrasts between the open bay and nearby cold land surfaces would anchor winter storm systems in the Baffin/Labrador area. Snowfall could increase by an order of magnitude over Baffin Island, Northern Quebec and the coast of Greenland, thus initiating large-scale glaciation and an abrupt alteration of climate in northeastern North America.
This is the proposed mechanism that triggered the Wisconsinan ice age 120,500 years ago, and it is consistent with the records of sediment and marine fauna in deepsea cores.
Thoughts anyone?
Robert G. Johnson from the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, suggests a mechanism whereby the Laurentide Ice Sheet could have developed without any need for ECD, RTPW or significant change to the Earth's orbit or the Sun's output
http://naturalscience.com/ns/letters/ns_let32.html
Extract:
If the present trend of pack-ice shrinkage continues, this annual increment of freshwater will diminish, and may become insignificant in another 30 years. The consequent increase in surface salinity plus the progressively higher upper-level salinity due to Norwegian Current inflow is expected to sharply increase the density of Arctic Ocean water entering the northern part of Baffin Bay through Lancaster Sound. That higher density will reduce stratification in the bay, and probably allow deep sinking of winter-cooled water to begin in the northern part of the bay a few decades from today. The resulting newly formed deepwater would flow southward out of the bay over the sill at Davis Strait, with saline replacement water entering the bay on the surface from the south. The abrupt development of a regional conveyor belt would then keep the bay free of winter sea ice, resulting in a major atmospheric circulation change. The large winter temperature contrasts between the open bay and nearby cold land surfaces would anchor winter storm systems in the Baffin/Labrador area. Snowfall could increase by an order of magnitude over Baffin Island, Northern Quebec and the coast of Greenland, thus initiating large-scale glaciation and an abrupt alteration of climate in northeastern North America.
This is the proposed mechanism that triggered the Wisconsinan ice age 120,500 years ago, and it is consistent with the records of sediment and marine fauna in deepsea cores.
Thoughts anyone?