Technocrat

Icebergs and CO2

zogger
Thu Nov 27 19:10:00 -0800 2008
Environment.
manage

The Earth has experienced periods of rapid CO2 buildup and fall before, thousands of years before the Industrial Age. So what might have caused that? Some researchers think they have found one probable answer-icebergs. Icebergs calving off in the North Atlantic and then rapidly melting impact the Atlantic Conveyor current, which in turn effects the marine food chain because of changes in nutrient upwelling, which effects levels of atmospheric CO2 as plants in the ocean rise and fall in numbers and efficiency of conversion, plus the water itself changes ability to store excess carbon. It is almost a pendulum effect.

...They designed the model to mimic present-day conditions, but they dropped temperatures to ice-age levels. Then, they flooded their virtual North Atlantic with fresh water and watched what happened. "We hit our climate machine with a big hammer," Galbraith says. ed.z.: well, there are other methods to get new equipment... :)

Icebergs and CO2
President4242
Mon Dec 01 08:52:29 -0800 2008
 manage

Interesting theory- here's another one that might be a bit more direct:  Dry ice meteorites from a comet tail.  They'd vaporize almost instantly on contact with the atmosphere (no craters), and the greater weight of the resulting gas would sink.

 

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