Patagonian Temperatures Warmest In 400 Years - Glacial Melt Accelerating

[hatrack]

Patagonia increasingly warm

"Patagonia is undergoing the strongest warming process ever in the last four hundred years according to a report jointly elaborated by Argentine and Chilean scientists, and published in the latest edition of the Dutch magazine, Climatic Change.

The report, 'Long term climatic changes in the Southern Andes: variations in the 20th Century in the context of the last 400 years' consists in (sic) the reconstruction of temperature patterns in north and south Patagonia based on the growth rings of autochthonous tress, particularly the Nothofagus Pumilio, locally known as the lenga, which grow from northern Neuquen to Tierra del Fuego.

'Never before in the last four centuries have temperatures along the Southern Andes reached the current warming levels,' said Ricardo Villalba, an Argentine forestry expert with PhDs from the University of Colorado and Columbia University.

EDIT

Another area of research is charting the Patagonian ice mass and its constant retraction at different speeds. Primary information from the Argentine Glaciology Department indicates that the Frias glacier in the Nahuei Huapi Park Tronador peak reached its maximum expansion during the last 2,000 years between 1640 and 1660. Since then and until 1850 it retracted at an annual rate of 2.5 metres. However between 1850 and 1890 it jumped to seven metres; between 1910 and 1940, 10 metres and 36 metres from 1976 to 1986. 'Our camp work is showing that the contraction speed since 1986 has actually increased, in all Patagonian glaciers and this is proving consistent with temperature reconstruction,' highlighted Dr. Villalba."

EDIT/END

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=2430

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Goes along with...

permafrost melting in Canada, Alpine and Himalayan glacier melt, other SA glacier melts further north... All of this water adds to the sea rise.

The real problem is when the ice shelves in Antarctica start to go. They're holding back hundreds of cubic miles of ice on the land that could slip into the ocean.

Estimates average about a 6 foot rise in sea levels, which would inundate coastal areas around the world. Won't happen in a day, but we could live to see it.

(Buy land in the mountains.)

[treepig]

2. will icecap and glacial melting trigger a new ice age?

i posted this information over in the lbn section, but the half life of articles and quality of discussion aren't always ideal over there, so i'm reposting it here to see if anyone has any comments.


here's the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98jan/climate.htm

the basic premise is that melting fresh water will interfere with heat transfer mechanisms in the ocean and plunge the world into a new ice age, here's a snippet:

"One of the most shocking scientific realizations of all time has slowly been dawning on us: the earth's climate does great flip-flops every few thousand years, and with breathtaking speed. We could go back to ice-age temperatures within a decade -- and judging from recent discoveries, an abrupt cooling could be triggered by our current global-warming trend. Europe's climate could become more like Siberia's. Because such a cooling would occur too quickly for us to make readjustments in agricultural productivity and supply, it would be a potentially civilization-shattering affair, likely to cause an unprecedented population crash. What paleoclimate and oceanography researchers know of the mechanisms underlying such a climate flip suggests that global warming could start one in several different ways."

the author doesn't seem to be a right wing nutcase, but also doesn't document his hypotheses too well, so if anyone out there has opinions, please participate . . .

[sam sarrha]

3. if warm water reaches methane hydrate deposits previously protected

by cold ice water and the hydrate cracks, the resulting explosion could be in the millions of megatons, throwing dust into the upper atmosphere. this would cause an INSTANT ice age lasting hundreds or thousands of years. i happened in Norway when the polar ice caps started to melt and set the ice age back several thousand years. the methane hydrate is venting in the arctic tundra right now in places. methane is a worse greenhouse gas than CO2. the tundra is starting to melt now in Alaska destroying roads and 167 towns are endangered.

[hatrack]

4. I've never heard of methane hydrates possibly exploding

Leaking, certainly, is a possibility, if temperature and geology permit, but explosions?

[sam sarrha]

5. there was a program on national geographic... very well done, back

in the 70's they did some tests on what might happen if a cryogenic tanker spilled on the ocean.. there was one test that spontaneously detonated... at that time they didn't understand the cause. i haven't heard anything since, but they didn't build any cryotankers. the detonation during the ice age was discussed in the national geographic special on the Discovery Chanel, they showed computer graphics of the hole it made, the hole had been a mystery for a long time because of its parabolic shape. and immense size.

[treepig]

6. if you could provide more specific information about methyl hydrates

and their propensity to explode, that's be greatly appreciated!

my search pulled up a few sites that mostly discussed them in a positive light, i.e., as a source of energy:

http://www.fe.doe.gov/oil_gas/methanehydrates/


as far as the cryogenic tanker goes . . . are you sure they didn't build any, isn't that what the following paragraph is referring to (or are you thinking of something else?)

http://www.naturalgasfacts.org/factsheets/liquefied.html

Government and industry leaders concerned about the need for more natural gas are increasingly interested in imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a way to help meet rising demand. Gas is chilled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, turning it to liquid. In its liquid form, the gas takes up one six hundredth the space occupied by an equivalent amount of vapor, a little like reducing a car to the size of your fist. The liquid is pumped onto an LNG tanker for ocean shipment to the U.S. where it is returned to vapor and sent under pressure through pipelines for use in home heating and cooling, or in factories or producing electricity. All of the gas consumed in Japan comes from LNG imports. In the U.S., just 1 percent of the gas consumed by residents is imported LNG. By 2008, that number is expected to grow to 3 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). At the moment, there are just four U.S. facilities equipped to take LNG ashore: in Everett, Mass; Cove Point, Md.; Elba Island, Ga.; and Lake Charles, La.

pictures of lng carriers can be found at this link:

http://www.pacific-war.com/nauticus/mybio2.html

[Boreas]

7. University of East Anglica Data

This page deals specifically with thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic and possible consequences of a global warming induced shutdown of the circulation.

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/thc/

Click on their Information Sheet page, done by the Climatic Research Unit for more.

Cheers.