First Evidence Of Under-Ice Volcanoes In Antarctica 186
An anonymous reader writes "The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica's ice sheet has been discovered by members of the British Antarctic Survey. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet began erupting some 2,000 years ago and remains active to this day. Using airborne ice-sounding radar, scientists discovered a layer of ash produced by a 'subglacial' volcano. It extends across an area larger than Wales."
How long? (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh well, screw global warming (Score:5, Interesting)
It's funny, Here in Denmark, we here alot about the potential consequences of global warming, about the millions of refugees it will create.
Noone ever mentions that we'll probably be some of those refugees, Our tallest hill, has a height below 170,9 metres, or 560,6 feet above sealevel.
Time for me to buy that land in south america.
And the debate continues (Score:2, Interesting)
From TFA:
Co-author Professor David Vaughan (BAS) says,"This eruption occurred close to Pine Island Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The flow of this glacier towards the coast has speeded up in recent decades and it may be possible that heat from the volcano has caused some of that acceleration. However, it cannot explain the more widespread thinning of West Antarctic glaciers that together are contributing nearly 0.2mm per year to sea-level rise. This wider change most probably has its origin in warming ocean waters."
What warms the oceans? Global warming is a big buzzword today, and not without merit. I just find it interesting that there may be more possibilities out there than just "OMG we are killing the urf!"
Nature has a role to play in this too, humans weren't around during the ice-age, if we were we would have been blamed for Global Cooling I bet...
Re:Oh well, screw global warming (Score:1, Interesting)
This doesn't mean that life isn't going to suck in Denmark. But at least you won't be completely swamped. When people talk about refugees they primarily mean due to desertification. The increased desertification won't extend that far north, but it is going to make life at equatorial latitudes suck even more than it does now. Heh, we might finally actually have the torrid clime. Wouldn't the Greeks and Romans be surprised that it was humans that created it.
Re:Area conversion... (Score:3, Interesting)
As volcanoes go, this rather large. I am reminded of the bit in Blue Mars [wikipedia.org] where the west Antarctic ice sheet slides off the continent in a few days and global sea levels rise by six metres.
i read somewhere (Score:3, Interesting)
i don't know the rate, but perhaps the rising seawater and the rising land should counteract each other in scandinavia
i'm not really being that serious, just trying to bring some good cheer to you gloomy nords
will accelerate melting at some point (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a quite thick layer of soot and ash trapped inside the glacier. At some point when the glacier melts enough, that whole layer becomes visible and thus the reflection of sunlight from the glacier surface diminishes. And the melting speed increases dramatically. To make things worse, the layer will stay there for some time as it is bit warmer than the ice and so it bores small holes where to stay put instead of getting flushed away.
And don't get me started on that active volcano under glacier. How it will react when the weight of the glacier eases rapidly? Possible earthquakes and that means tsunami.
Funny thing, a Finnish author named Risto Isomäki has written a hard scifi book about the subject only couple of years ago. It's called the sands of Sarasvati.
Wales, as a common unit of size!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Wales has, for decades, been used in the UK as a standard of measurement, not just of land mass but also of population, annual rain fall, tourist numbers and exports. Every large country's size was measured in 'Wales'es. Popular media, like radio and television have used the 'Wales', mainly in news reports.
"The Americans have invaded Vietnam. This country in south east Asia is 14 times the size of Wales."
"The Falklands have been invaded! These disputed islands, half the size of Wales, have been sought after by the Argentine government for decades."
etc
Re:And the debate continues (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Wales? (Score:2, Interesting)
Udu lives in the next village: he has a very flat head, therefore is an obvious unit of measurement.
What's more, since we switched to the Udu from the Boko (Boko got arthritis, so was shrinking), our real-estate market has thrived