A Giant, Mysterious Hole Has Opened Up In Antarctica (vice.com) 270
Scientists are perplexed over a giant hole that has opened up in Antarctica. According to Motherboard, the "gigantic, mysterious hole" is as large as Lake Superior or the state of Maine. From the report: The gigantic, mysterious hole "is quite remarkable," atmospheric physicist Kent Moore, a professor at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus, told me over the phone. "It looks like you just punched a hole in the ice." Areas of open water surrounded by sea ice, such as this one, are known as polynyas. They form in coastal regions of Antarctica, Moore told me. What's strange here, though, is that this polynya is "deep in the ice pack," he said, and must have formed through other processes that aren't understood. "This is hundreds of kilometers from the ice edge. If we didn't have a satellite, we wouldn't know it was there." (It measured 80,000 km^2 at its peak.) "This is now the second year in a row it's opened after 40 years of not being there," Moore said. (It opened around September 9.) "We're still trying to figure out what's going on."
Water currents. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's most likely water currents causing this phenomenon. Unless there's a volcano that's erupting, but that would be detected seismologically.
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Underwater volcanism is my first guess. There is probably a convective current starting from the heated area at sea floor beneath the hole. The heat source was probably always there, but now the temperature of sea water has risen enough that with additional heating it is enough to melt the ice.
Re:Water currents. (Score:5, Informative)
Underwater volcanism is my first guess. There is probably a convective current starting from the heated area at sea floor beneath the hole. The heat source was probably always there, but now the temperature of sea water has risen enough that with additional heating it is enough to melt the ice.
Perhaps. I'm a firm believer in the laws of thermodynamics, but I certainly wouldn't declare this as related to AGW. This despite the denialists rushing to declare that people are saying it is, so they can have a strawman to beat up.
And yes folks, we are allowed to speculate. Scientists do this all the time in order to eliminate unlikely candidates for the phenomenon, like the open water being caused by the pancake syrup at iHop.
You are correct that volcanic activity is a good first guess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Antarctica is a pretty busy place in that way. A group has claimed to have found 91 previously unknown volcanoes, https://www.engadget.com/2017/... [engadget.com] but these have not been confirmed as of yet.
This one is active and confirmed https://www.livescience.com/41... [livescience.com] .
Global warming? I seriously doubt it. A problem for humans? Not unless this is the initial bowshots of a nascent super-volcano. Interesting as all hell, and it surely wouldn't hurt to find out the cause.
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But it does provide all the Pearl Clutches something to fret about.
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EVEN if the initial bowshots of a nascent super-volcano.,.Antartica is a bloody long way from anything civilized. At worst we might see some climate disruption.
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A polynia was observed in the same location, in Antarctica's Weddell Sea, in the 1970s, according to Moore, who's been working with the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modelling (SOCCOM) group, based at Princeton University, to analyze what's going on. Back then, scientists' observation tools weren't nearly as good, so that hole remained largely unstudied. Then it went away for four decades, until last year, when it reopened for a few weeks. Now it's back again.
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now the temperature of sea water has risen enough that with additional heating it is enough to melt the ice.
From the featured (?) article: "[a hole] was observed in the same location, in Antarctica's Weddell Sea, in the 1970s, [...] back then, scientists' observation tools weren't nearly as good, so that hole remained largely unstudied".
Re: Water currents. (Score:5, Funny)
Don't be silly. It's not completely unreasonable that one of the research scientists posted this story to tap the unparalleled hive mind at /..
"...gigantic, mysterious hole" is as large as Lake Superior or the state of Maine.
Clearly, the real story here is that Lake Superior and the State of Maine are interchangeable units of measuring area. Who Knew?
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It depends if you are an east coast or a mid west type of person.
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I had not considered the regional angle.
Perhaps the author would have been better served to use a more ubiquitous USian measurement of area, such as Olympic-sized swimming pools or football fields.
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Are those English football fields or USian football fields?
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From here in the Upper Left Coast, these are all the same size: Lake Superior, Maine, and Rhode Island.
If you are far enough away, everything else is small.
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Up North
Down South
Back East
Out West
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Those of us from a certain upper midwest state just show our palm and point.
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Clearly, the real story here is that Lake Superior and the State of Maine are interchangeable units of measuring area. Who Knew?
Well, I for one prefer the lake as a unit of measurement because obviously it is .... Superior!
Re: Water currents. (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly, the real story here is that Lake Superior and the State of Maine are interchangeable units of measuring area. Who Knew?
A little known fact is that Lake Superior and the state of Maine are also physically interchangeable!
This is the reason neither of those things are labeled by name on Google Maps.
Re: Water currents. (Score:4, Funny)
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Scientists don't know what's going on, and this guy doesn't either, but he went ahead and made a guess. It's a pretty good guess, too, because it doesn't require any new understandings of the universe.
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Scientists don't know what's going on BUT THIS GUY DOES! If only the researchers only read TFS before pontificating we would solve all the mysteries of the universe.
If you knew what the word 'guess' meant, you wouldn't have had to embarrass yourself like that. You should look up 'probably' as well.
Dumbass.
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My guess is it's a promotional stunt for the film "Iron Sky 2: The Coming Age", that got out of hand.
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It's most likely water currents causing this phenomenon.
You should email the atmospheric physicist quoted in the article and let him know.
https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/cp... [utoronto.ca]
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I'm pretty sure the cause of the Antarctic waterhole is heat.
I leave it as an exercise for the Reader to determine where the heat is coming from.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Water currents. (Score:5, Informative)
That's like saying the bug in this software is probably due to a subroutine.
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Have you ever played knifey-spoony?
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Once, ironically. I had ten-thousand spoons and no knife.
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Do toilets on the equator simply drain straight down?
Not news. (Score:4, Funny)
It's always been there!
It's the hole that leads to Nazi occupied Hollow-Earth, where they have there domesticated dinosaurs to ride on and keep their UFOs. Every educated person knows this.
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SSSSHHHHHH!!!!!
You fool!
Now they're going to come for you!
FLEE!
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Actually I've long been a fan of both Hyperborean and hollow-Earth theories, which are often found together and some people sincerely believed back in the 1800s (and probably still do). Antarctica fired many peoples' imaginations which is why I suppose people sent expeditions there; it was just on the edge of what could be accessible, like the Moon was in the 1960s. WIthout satellites it was just a big blank spot on the map; anything could be there. Maybe event Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness.
The combi
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TFS says the hole opened September 9th. Notice the increase in Nazi rallies since late last year. Coincidence? I think not!
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BTW, have the cats pushed everything off your flat earth yet?
Wild Mass Guessing (Score:2)
Underwater thermal vents. And/or aliens.
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No problem, we got our giant robots ready to fight. ... do we?
The Hole (Score:3)
Not knowing where it came from, scientists are looking into it.
Any scifi fan will know (Score:4, Funny)
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If there is any time for Alien overlords it is now.
Heck I would be happy with Richard Nixon Head in a headless robot body of Agnew.
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If you wanted alien overlords, you should've voted for Clinton!
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Like most of the voting American Public, I did.
Supervolcano (Score:2)
The Kraken Awakes! (Score:2)
Reminds me also of the X-Man somewhere at the end of the eighties, but that could have been in Siberia.
How thick is the ice? (Score:2)
Do any of you fellow slashdotter have any insight on how thick the ice actually is, around there?
Re:How thick is the ice? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: How thick is the ice? (Score:2)
Um, this is the Antarctic and "hundreds of kilometres from the ice edge".
alien vs predator (Score:2, Funny)
viral marketing?
It's the Gods of Climate Change (Score:2, Insightful)
...acting out. We must immediately throw in all the orange Climate.Change Deniers to appease them,
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It's not a good idea to pollute the ocean like that.
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A government actions or lack of action are a multiplier effect of the people ability to act personally on helping environmental problems.
If the government signs papers that will put funding into Electric Car R&D. Help local communities update their infrastructure for more efficient methods. Insure education and training are modern and up to date, so high school graduates don't feel they will have to work in the coal mine for the next 20 years.
If they are a bunch of available electric cars (Suited for di
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We don't all live in the People's Republic of California.
Weddell Polynya (Score:5, Informative)
The Weddell Polynya is reasonably well understood [phys.org]
"The Southern Ocean is strongly stratified. A very cold but relatively fresh water layer covers a much warmer and saltier water mass, thus acting as an insulating layer," explains Prof. Dr. Mojib Latif, head of the Research Division at GEOMAR. Under certain conditions, the warm water of the lower layer can reach the surface and melt the ice. "This is like opening a pressure relief valve - the ocean then releases a surplus of heat to the atmosphere for several consecutive winters until the heat reservoir is exhausted," adds Professor Latif
Giant Crack (Score:2)
So the giant crack in the image is not a concern?
Poll flip? (Score:2)
Maybe it heralds the flipping of the magnetic poles, which has happened in the past and according to some is overdue.
Polynia (Score:2)
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That's funny. Using google translate, Russian "polynia" translates in English to "polynia".
In the right light... (Score:2)
...you look like Shackleton!
Start the expedition [youtube.com].
Vaguely more on topic than a lot of what I'm reading here.
Everyone has a theory (Score:2)
Was there last year too (Score:2)
For those who use metric (Score:5, Informative)
For those who use metric, it's a bit less than three standard Belgiums.
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A "standard" Belgium? As opposed to what? An "imperial" Belgium?
Re:For those who use metric (Score:5, Funny)
A "standard" Belgium? As opposed to what? An "imperial" Belgium?
Yes. Imperial Belgium is much bigger, as it included the Congo. The Congo is very big.
For those who use atomic units (Score:2)
And for those of us who prefer atomic units it's...
An area of about 32.7 Nonillion (32.7e30) rBohr square, or about 326 Octillion (326e27) cesium atoms in a 2d latice.
Alright (Score:2)
We're at 135 posts so far and nobody made the obvious connection.
A giant mysterious hole has opened up in Antarctica? The answer is obvious: it's the other end of a wormhole that links to Uranus.
Cthulhu awakens (Score:2)
The shoggoths continue their dark work, and prepare us all to enter the maw. Cthulhu awakens, and he is not best pleased.
Volcano? (Score:2)
This range of very active volcanoes [washingtonpost.com] have been discovered. Perhaps no one put the 2 together? Or maybe steam from one that is about to erupt could be sending heat beneath the ice pack.
One Island on Antarctica's shores has a Caldera supervolano similar to Yellowstone that produces hot springs for warm bathing by humans [alamy.com]. Even if there is no eruption some steam and hot water ahead of one can give off an incredible amount of heat under an already stressed ice pack.
Firesign Theater: (Score:2)
"The one with the ever widening hole in it!"
Moulder called (Score:2)
this time he says it not real and nothing to see.
Warning for flat earthers! (Score:2)
Don't get too close, or you might fall through and land on the turtle.
Re: Queue up the jokes (Score:5, Funny)
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I second that:
http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Antarctica
Re: Queue up the jokes (Score:4, Funny)
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
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For those not familiar with the Lovecraft oeuvre, Antarctica was inhabited by Elder Things and their servants, the Shoggoths, who came to Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. They fought with Cthulhu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! (Score:4, Funny)
Again already? But it just ended on Sept 23.
Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! (Score:5, Funny)
Again already? But it just ended on Sept 23.
It's a buy one get one free deal.
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Again already? But it just ended on Sept 23.
It's a buy one get one free deal.
And we still haven't recovered from the May 2011 end of the world. Ahhh, those were good times.
Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Upgrade the universe to 64-bits already!
Reboot the universe (Score:4, Funny)
Upgrade the universe to 64-bits already!
But then I'll need to reboot the universe, and I still have a few unsaved tabs.
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Nah, that was just the Rapture. All the true followers of Jesus ascended to Heaven - didn't you notice?
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*woosh*
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Newsweek is telling us about some religious wacko who claims that the world will end in 4 (four) days !
FTFY. Interesting article, though. That guy is truly unhinged.
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"Russian hentai" doesn't sound right, like saying "American maple syrup".
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That's not horrific enough. I would say "Russian hentai" would be on par with "British dental repair".
Actually, I just googled both to confirm, and have found out neither one exist. All the images were from other regions.
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15 million football fields.
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Considering he used bathtubs as an example and asked for human terms, I believe he was looking for something like the list I'm about to provide, each of which is close to 80,000 km^2, rather than having a number that is beyond our ability to grasp easily expressed in terms of equally ungraspable units.
Anywhere, here's a quick list I pulled together of some notable items between about 77K and 83K km^2:
- Austria
- Czech Republic
- Lake Superior
- Maine, USA
- Scotland
- South Carolina, USA
- United Arab Emirates
Rat
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Shocking as it may seem, Creimer appears to have become the new Natalie Portman.
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I think he's more of the hot grits down your pants.
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Nah, two guys [southpolestation.com] should be sufficient.
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We need to mount an expedition! Get the dogs and the tinned meat.
You do that, I'll get a helicopter and meet you there.
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They did, and confirmed it is indeed a hole.
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Uh, you're the one jumping to the conclusion that it is caused by "climate change", with the insinuation that it's due to humans.