OTTAWA (CP) - So the warnings of harsher heat waves, stronger hurricanes and rising seas fail to impress. How about volcanic eruptions in the Arctic, or a tsunami off the coast of Newfoundland?
The latest scientific discipline to enter the fray over global warming is geology.
And the forecasts from some quarters are dramatic - not only will the earth shake, it will spit fire...
"What happens is the weight of this thick ice puts a lot of stress on the earth," says Wu. "The weight sort of suppresses the earthquakes but when you melt the ice the earthquakes get triggered."
When a quake happens under water it can cause a tsunami. Wu said melting of the Antarctic ice is already causing earthquakes and underground landslides although they get little attention. He predicted climate warming will bring "lots of earthquakes."
When the glaciers melt, the reliquified water causes sea levels to rise and increases the weight on the ocean floor, which could also have an effect on the grinding tectonic plates deep below the surface.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Something else to worry about
Just thought I'd give you all something to ruin your day:
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There is something a little odd about this. The geologists are usually found among the smart ass crowd who denounce GW expositions at their conventions. They are accustomed to muttering darkly about leftists, dismiss global warming, and favor one shot and very simple GW denials.
A lot of them work for oil, and now that oil is very much in demand, I guess even more of them will be found tied in to the black goo. Also they like to talk about very long stretches of time, so a few hundred thousand years is a small bit and decades are not even a blink..
So why would they switch from the hostile and dismissive to what sounds a lot like sky-is-falling presentations.
Why would people who welcome the likes of Tim Ball or Stephen, lets- inflate-that- molehill, Mcintyre suddenly get with the program?
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