melting ice will trigger wave of natural disasters

Climate change: melting ice will trigger wave of natural disastersScientists at a London conference next week will warn of earthquakes, avalanches and volcanic eruptions as the atmosphere heats up and geology is altered. Even Britain could face being struck by tsunamis
Scientists are to outline dramatic evidence that global warming threatens the planet in a new and unexpected way – by triggering earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches and volcanic eruptions.

Reports by international groups of researchers – to be presented at a London conference next week – will show that climate change, caused by rising outputs of carbon dioxide from vehicles, factories and power stations, will not only affect the atmosphere and the sea but will alter the geology of the Earth.

Melting glaciers will set off avalanches, floods and mud flows in the Alps and other mountain ranges; torrential rainfall in the UK is likely to cause widespread erosion; while disappearing Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets threaten to let loose underwater landslides, triggering tsunamis that could even strike the seas around Britain.

At the same time the disappearance of ice caps will change the pressures acting on the Earth's crust and set off volcanic eruptions across the globe. Life on Earth faces a warm future – and a fiery one.

"Not only are the oceans and atmosphere conspiring against us, bringing baking temperatures, more powerful storms and floods, but the crust beneath our feet seems likely to join in too," said Professor Bill McGuire, director of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre, at University College London (UCL).

"Maybe the Earth is trying to tell us something," added McGuire, who is one of the organisers of UCL's Climate Forcing of Geological Hazards conference, which will open on 15 September. Some of the key evidence to be presented at the conference will come from studies of past volcanic activity. These indicate that when ice sheets disappear the number of eruptions increases, said Professor David Pyle, of Oxford University's earth sciences department.

"The last ice age came to an end between 12,000 to 15,000 years ago and the ice sheets that once covered central Europe shrank dramatically," added Pyle. "The impact on the continent's geology can by measured by the jump in volcanic activity that occurred at this time."

In the Eiffel region of western Germany a huge eruption created a vast caldera, or basin-shaped crater, 12,900 years ago, for example. This has since flooded to form the Laacher See, near Koblenz. Scientists are now studying volcanic regions in Chile and Alaska – where glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking rapidly as the planet heats up – in an effort to anticipate the eruptions that might be set off.

Last week scientists from Northern Arizona University reported in the journal Science that temperatures in the Arctic were now higher than at any time in the past 2,000 years. Ice sheets are disappearing at a dramatic rate – and these could have other, unexpected impacts on the planet's geology
www.guardian.co.uk...
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Compared to the ice that melted at the end of the last Glacial, the remaining ice in the N Hemisphere is inconsequential and the effects will thus be much, much less.

Benfield Hazard Research Centre is prone to issuing reports of this nature. I think their main purpose in life is to provide the tabloid press with new end of the world disaster stories.

Everything they say could happen - but separately and over the course of hundreds or thousands of years.

Benfield are also behind the (largely now discredited) idea that an imminent massive landslide on Cumbre Vieja in the Canaries will cause a mega-tsunami to swap the eastern seaboard of the USA.

www.iberianature.com...

Still, disaster sell

Only a fool would not have already noticed the weather changing..

Now would be a good time to pack your stuff up and move inland as far away from the coastline as possible.

The Ice caps are melting 4 times faster than previously predicted.
Do your own research because our Governments know the real story and the fact is everyone should be @#%* scared of what is about to happen in our very near future. Governments are doing a very good job on keeping this quite. because they know it’s too late and there is nothing we can do to stop it now.
It would be nice to be skeptical of what is happening but its fact, the ICE IS MELTING PEOPLES.

I live in central Australia we just had our Hottest ever August, suppose to be our coldest month of the year? and we hit 35 deg C Unbelievable..

How hot is our Summer going to be? We just hit Spring now.

Prepare yourselves because we are going on a nice long bumpy ride Boys and Girls..




[edit on 10-9-2009 by smashenator]

reply to post by smashenator

Well i hope your summer will turn out better than ours did. I ve never seen so much rain!


I hope i never see any of these disasters in my life time

Are you implying that this Climate change is "man-made"?
Because Every planet in the solar system is warming at the same Relative rate. Maybe if I buy some CFL's or carbon offsets, I can save the martian polar icecaps too?

Originally posted by smashenator
Only a fool would not have already noticed the weather changing..

Now would be a good time to pack your stuff up and move inland as far away from the coastline as possible.

The Ice caps are melting 4 times faster than previously predicted.
Do your own research because our Governments know the real story and the fact is everyone should be @#%* scared of what is about to happen in our very near future. Governments are doing a very good job on keeping this quite. because they know it’s too late and there is nothing we can do to stop it now.
It would be nice to be skeptical of what is happening but its fact, the ICE IS MELTING PEOPLES.

I live in central Australia we just had our Hottest ever August, suppose to be our coldest month of the year? and we hit 35 deg C Unbelievable..

How hot is our Summer going to be? We just hit Spring now.

Prepare yourselves because we are going on a nice long bumpy ride Boys and Girls..




[edit on 10-9-2009 by smashenator]

Wow that is interesting. I guess the U.S. now knows where all the hot weather went! We have been setting record low temperatures for our hottest months here which are June, July, and August. We had multiple days in August, our hottest month, which didn't even reach 70 degrees! That is unheard of.

reply to post by Remixtup


Right. Everybody seems to be forgetting on purpose that the lack of Sun spots is having an effect on everything. Man accounts for a small part of what's going on, but the Earth herself is a cause of alot of what's happening, going through a normal warming/cooling periods. Don't believe me check through recorded history an you'll see where there has been warming/cooling trends.

reply to post by Remixtup


Climate Change?
We have just been assisting in the speed that our planet earth has heated up.
I have said this before. The scientist are only concerned in two temperature on the globe and they are the North and South Pole Temps. These two temps are like the globe temp regulators and unfortunately Both temps are on the rise, hence the ice melting. it’s a runaway train now.

Because the ice is melting at such a rapid rate, it is changing our climates throughout the globe. what do you think the main thing is that is effecting the weather change?

I will tell you!!
Because the ice is melting it is adding a massive amount of fresh water to the ocean which in turn is effecting our world ocean currents.
a simple way to put it is, go for a lap in a salt water swimming pool and compare your lap time by swimming in a fresh water pool. You will swim allot faster in the salt water. Just an example guys to help explain.

Most people are concerned about rising water levels, but the real concern is that of our ocean currents that will cause the most damage. Ocean current play a big part in moving our weather around the globe.

Our food sources are being wiped out faster than anyone could possibly imagine, Plants and animals are having great difficulty adapting to the extreme weather changes that we are witnessing.
Plants , Fish ,Mammals cannot adapt to overnight climate change.
Our fruit trees flowered in the last month of Winter? U can be as skeptical as you like but that isn’t suppose to happen.

So when our coast lines get wiped out from great waves of disaster the rest of us get to starve to death.
How cool is that?

reply to post by smashenator


Or you might want to ask, "how hot is that.

pun totally intended.