"Oceans"

[mr blur]

My wife and one of the dirtbags are avid marine aquarium keepers. We've just finished watching the BBC's "Oceans" films ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/oceans/locations/cortez/ ) which were broadcast last year. Excellent stuff. Especially the final one on the Arctic Ocean which shows, sadly, just how much good old homo sapiens are fucking things up. Fabulous photography, understandable science. Too much to mention here, but I recommend watching it. I wouldn't for one second suggest that you should see it without paying for it but if you happen to have a Rapidshare account I understand that you can get it here: http://f60s.com/cache/t/35878.aspx

My favourite sequence:

In Djibouti at the gateway of the Red Sea an oceanographic marvel is occurring - a new ocean is being formed. This ocean is being created by the tectonic plates of Africa and Arabia being torn apart. All oceans are formed in this way, but this is one of the rare places where this process can be witnessed first hand.



The rift is a narrow crack under the water which at some points is no more than a metre wide. The plates are being torn apart at a speed of about 2cm a year, roughly the same speed as the growth of a finger nail. In tens of millions of years, hundreds of miles of this rift could be covered in water, this ocean has already been named the Afar.Text

[csziggy]

1. I watched a different show about the Afar the other night

And they said the area is already below sea level and has been flooded at different times in prehistory, depending on the ocean levels and the progression of the spreading plates.

I wondered how that might change the climate in that part of Africa? If a shallow sea were introduced, could that increase the moisture moving across Northern Africa and make it possible to reduce the desertification?

I did a little bit of Googling but the only paper I could find about past climate in that area was not available online without payment. It would be interesting to see climatological projections. If it was a beneficial change would the world be willing to make the effort to prematurely create the Afar Sea?