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91 volcanoes found below Antarctic ice sheet


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Scientists have uncovered the largest volcanic region on Earth – two kilometres below the surface of the vast ice sheet that covers west Antarctica.

The project, by Edinburgh University researchers, has revealed almost 100 volcanoes – with the highest as tall as the Eiger, which stands at almost 4,000 metres in Switzerland.

Geologists say this huge region is likely to dwarf that of east Africa’s volcanic ridge, currently rated the densest concentration of volcanoes in the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/12/scientists-discover-91-volcanos-antarctica

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Let's hope that ice never melts. The results would be catastrophic. 

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There are probably millions of volcanoes that have been active during the whole lifespan of the earth. During the past 10,000 years, there are about 1500 volcanoes on land that are known to have have been active, while the even larger number of submarine volcanoes is unknown.

An extra 91 is quite a find, I wonder how long they were active for and when. Pangea?

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Great find !!

As a side note, I can only imagine the rich history of long dead plants, trees, critters and animals which must be down there, far underneath the ice.
After all, Antarctica long ago was in a very temperate climate for a very long time.

Exciting what further discoveries await for researchers in the future.

Edited by pallidin
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Earth warms up causing glaciers to melt and volcanoes to explode, megatons of ash goes into atmosphere causing another ice age and the cycle continues, hopefully with man still in the picture.

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Fun Fact:

Quoted Source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/multimedia/fall11/antarctica-US.html

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"Antarctica is the highest, driest, coldest, windiest and brightest of the seven continents. It is roughly the size of the United States and Mexico combined and is almost completely covered by a layer of ice that averages more than one mile in thickness, but is nearly three miles thick in places. This ice accumulated over millions of years through snowfall. Presently, the Antarctic ice sheet contains 90% of the ice on Earth and would raise sea levels worldwide by over 200 feet were it to melt."

Edited by pallidin
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Maybe this is what killed the dinosaurs.

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4 hours ago, seanjo said:

Climatic warming has nothing to do with volcanic action.

I don't think that is a true statement.  

How much it affects global warming or global cooling is debatable, but when a volcano spews 200 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it is more than "nothing".  

Still not close to what humans are doing. 

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40 minutes ago, seanjo said:

I don't think I made myself clear, my fault, what I mean is global warming does not affect volcanic action, yes volcanic eruptions can affect climate but not vice versa as Ashetop seemed to imply.

Gotcha.   I took your statement wrong.   

I agree with you on this.     I do wonder, can a 1 mile think layer of ice "seal" a volcano from erupting?

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7 hours ago, seanjo said:

Climatic warming has nothing to do with volcanic action.

Yes and no.  If the ice overburden melts, an eruption becomes more likely because of the reduced pressure on the magma.  An eruption discharges ash and CO2 into the air.  In the short run, the ash restricts incoming radiation, cooling the planet, but in the long run, the ash settles out leaving CO2 which warms the planet.  The Little Ice Age was caused by a combination of reduced solar input and four volcanic eruptions, ash from which cooled the planet, setting off an Arctic ice feedback loop which further cooled the planet.  This was reversed when solar radiation increased after the Dalton Minimum.

The yes part of the answer:  it takes a lot of ice melting to reduce pressure enough to trigger an eruption. Ordinarily that doesn't happen, but once in awhile...

The no part of the answer:  there are six ice storm signatures from southwest Arkansas, each caused by severe winter storms.  Three of those are associated with a major eruption:  Krakatoa (1883), Tamboura (1815) and Loki-Grimsvoten (1783-1784).  So volcanos affect weather affect climate.

Doug

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42 minutes ago, seanjo said:

Got an example of that?

Weather disturbances caused by Krakatoa (1883) produced the worst winter storm in American history in 1886.  Heavy snowfall in late January was added to an already-heavy snow load.  In early February there followed four days of balmy weather that melted the snow into slush.  Then the bottom fell out of the thermometer.  Wichita (Wichita Eagle) reported 42 degrees below zero.  The Hopkinsville Gazette (Kentucky) reported 40 degrees below.  Washington DC reported 40 degrees below and the Portsmouth (New Hampshire) harbor froze over for the only time in its history.  In Wyoming, a stage-coach made its run on top of the frozen snow withour leaving tracks.  In western Kansa a train got stuck in snow and had to stop.  Heat from the engine and coal stoves in the cars melted the snow which ran down onto the tracks and froze.  In the morning the train couldn't move because it was frozen to the rails.  An eleven-engine recue train from Kansas City got as far as Salina and got stuck in the snow and couldn't move.  At this time, settlers were just replacing the old soddies with new clapboard houses.  The soddies were well-insulated, but the new houses weren't.  109 people froze to death in their houses.  The storm signature for that (narrow rings for 1886 and 1887) is present in every Oklahoma chronology (tree rings) that goes back that far.  Cattle died by the tens of thousands.  Western cattlemen petitioned the Federal govt to end open range - the Bureau of Land Management was the result.

The Tamboura eruption left a triplet of narrow rings for the years 1817-1819.  That mostly shows up along the Red River around Texarkana, but also goes well into Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Laki-Grimsvoten left a pair of narrow rings for 1788-1789 in shortleaf pines at McCurtain County and Lake Winona on the Ouachita National Forest.  The original author is re-doing the chronology, hoping to extent it farther back in time and get enough cores to better-determine what exactly happened.

There are several additional storms for which I have no good explanation.  If they are indicative of a volcanic eruption, I haven't identified the eruption yet.

The record of these storms appears in every tree ring chronology east of the Rocky Mountains.

Doug

 

Edited by Doug1029
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On 8/17/2017 at 1:01 AM, taniwha said:

Maybe this is what killed the dinosaurs.

I think that was a meteorite that crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula.

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On 8/16/2017 at 1:51 AM, Ashotep said:

Earth warms up causing glaciers to melt and volcanoes to explode, megatons of ash goes into atmosphere causing another ice age and the cycle continues, hopefully with man still in the picture.

and a good percentage of that headed towards Australia. i curse you Trump.  

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On 8/18/2017 at 2:27 AM, seanjo said:

Climatic warming has nothing to do with volcanic action.

From the OP article.

Quote

Theory suggests that this is occurring because, without ice sheets on top of them, there is a release of pressure on the regions’ volcanoes and they become more active.”

 

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