Melting glaciers in Peru causing SERIOUS problems (in the Alps too)

[donsu]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3172572.stm

-snip-

A recent report by US space agency Nasa suggested that a large chunk of ice in the area could break off and fall into one of these lakes, triggering a devastating flood.

Satellites had detected a crack in the glacier overlooking Lake Palcacocha.

One city under threat would be Huaraz, with a population of 100,000. The news from Nasa came as a very worrying shock to many in the city.

"We were all very worried in my family - we packed suitcases with clothes and blankets," Joana, one of the citizens of Huaraz, told One Planet.

"We warned our relatives to be prepared."

-snip-

"In a few years' time we might not have any ice. I don't know where the Andean people will be able to go for their rituals."
--------------------------------------

[silverweb]

1. But... but... but...

Don't you know that "global warming" is a myth perpetuated by those evil liberals who just want to scare everyone into submitting to environmental regulations for their own profit??



*sigh*

It seems that I get more cynical by the minute.

How sad.

[Ivory_Tower]

2. This came up in a telecon at work a couple of months ago

I think it was some scientists at JPL that first reported this? The Peruvian government was apparently none too happy about it and the scientists were accused of fear-mongering. Hopefully this very real threat will be addressed seriously.

I think there are probably several satellites monitoring that lake now.

[BlueCollar]

3. Huaraz

and a number of other towns in the Callejon de Huaylas were devastated by an earthquake in May 1970.

The region is absoloutely stunning, although the people live in poverty.

An earthquake breaking off the glacier would be devastating.

Barbara Bode wrote a very good book on the event..."No bells to Toll...Destruction and creation in the Andes" ISBN 1-55778-389-6

I lived on the coast at the time, but distinctly remember the earthquake even though I was hundreds of miles away.

It was estimated that 20,000 died in Huaraz and over 100,000 in the valley as towns were buried.

[UTUSN]

4. Am Piggybacking "Yellowstone Volcano" onto This Thread

in case the thread gets moved. The replacement dude for Art BELL has been scaring the bejeezus saying that the Yellowstone volcano is capable of raising dust blocking out the sun for over 30 days, temperatures 400 degrees below F. A couple of weeks ago he was doing the space gadget being crashed into Jupiter as potentially exploding plutonium, which apparently didn't explode.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page1.html

******QUOTE*****

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/science/07GEYS.html?ex=1066541288&ei=1&en=6bfbb4f20999c1a1

.... Over last 630,000 years, Yellowstone has experienced 29 eruptions the size of the one on Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. The average interval here has been 20,000 years, and 70,000 have passed since its last eruption.

But the volcano, with a caldera 45 by 28 miles, has the potential for far more catastrophic explosions. The last major eruption, estimated at a magnitude 1,000 times as great as the Mount St. Helens explosion of 1980, was 627,000 years ago. The ancient blast blew up miles of mountain range, and ash from it has been uncovered in 22 Western states. It was so thick 1,000 miles away in Kansas that it was mined in the 1930's and used to make a cleanser.

Whether the caldera erupts or not, the stew of partly molten rock 5 to 10 miles below the park exerts a powerful and constant influence.

"The whole of the Yellowstone Plateau is going up and down from the magma," averaging one and a half centimeters a year, said Dr. Robert B. Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah and a member of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. "It's like a living, breathing thing." ....
*****UNQUOTE****

[Ripley]

5. I believe that is also happening in the Alps.

Potential for massive flooding.

Also didn't I read about a week ago that a huge ice shelf in the Arctic has broken off?

[Robin Hood]

6. Fill her up.

eom.

[Lars39]

7. And Austria wants to name a mountain after Ahnold.

Only if he shows up, though. Hmm.

I'm getting meaner in my old age. :evilgrin: