Some more excerpts about CO2 and volcanoes:
Naturally occurring bubbles of liquid carbon dioxide rising from the ocean floor - June 8, 2004 – For the first time ever, scientists using a camera-equipped submarine have been able to witness an undersea volcano during an eruptive episode.
Exploring the ocean floor in an area known as the Mariana Trench, the researchers “found bubbles of liquid carbon dioxide being released into the sea, enlarging up to a thousand times and turning to gas as they drifted upward.” (I have been saying for years that rising CO2 levels are a result of naturally occurring processes in the seas. This helps confirm those statements.)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... lc0608/BNS
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Underwater volcanic activity in the Arctic Ocean far stronger than anyone ever imagined!
German-American researchers have discovered more hydrothermal activity at the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean than anyone ever imagined.
"The Gakkel ridge is a gigantic volcanic mountain chain stretching beneath the Arctic Ocean. With its deep valleys 5,500 meters beneath the sea surface and its 5,000 meter- high summits, Gakkel ridge is far mightier than the Alps."
Two research icebreakers, the "USCGC Healy" from USA and the German "PFS Polarstern," recently joined forces in the international expedition AMORE (Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge Expedition). In attendance were scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and other international institutions.
The scientists had expected that the Gakkel ridge would exhibit "anemic" magmatism. Instead, they found "surprisingly strong magmatic activity in the West and the East of the ridge and one of the strongest hydrothermal activities ever seen at mid-ocean ridges."
"The Gakkel ridge extends about 1800 kilometers beneath the Arctic Ocean from north of Greenland to Siberia, and is the northernmost portion of the mid-ocean ridge system."
To their surprise, the researchers found high levels of volcanic activity. Indeed, magmatism was "dramatically" higher than expected.
Hydrothermal hot springs on the seafloor were also far more abundant than predicted. "We expected this to be a hydrothermally dead ridge, and almost every time our water measurement instrument came up, they showed evidence of hydrothermal activity, and once we even 'saw' an active hot spring on the sea floor," said Dr. Jonathan Snow, the leader of the research group from the Max Planck Institute.
No wonder the ice is melting!
See
http://www.mpg.de/english/illustrations ... ion/pressR eleases/2003/pressRelease20030718/index.html
(From the Max Planck Society, 18 July 2003, The Fiery Face of the Arctic Deep.) (Thanks to Jon C. Olsen for telling me about this.)
Surely, someone will find a way to blame this on "global warming."
Volcanic eruption under ice sheet - 23 Nov 05 - A rare
volcanic eruption is rapidly expanding the size of Montagu Island in the South Atlantic, scientists announced today.
Located in the South Sandwich Islands, Montagu Island has grown by 50 acres (0.2 square km) in the last month as lava pours into the sea. This event is special, say scientists, because Montagu Island is mostly covered by ice.
Popping rocks reveal multiple underwater volcanoes off northern Mexico
– 27 Oct 2005 - “Noisy popping rocks hauled up from the deep Pacific seafloor off northern Mexico appear to be from a very young undersea volcano, say U.S. and Mexican geologists.
Underwater volcanoes pose tsunami threat – July 28, 2005 –
Seventy five previously unknown underwater volcanoes between New Zealand
and Tonga pose a tsunami threat, warns Australian geologist Professor Richard
Arculus. See Tsunami Threat
.
Warmer oceans may be killing West Coast marine life
– 13 July 2005 - Scientists suspect that rising ocean temperatures and
dwindling plankton populations are behind a growing number of seabird
deaths, reports of fewer salmon and other anomalies along the West Coast.
Coastal ocean temperatures are 2 to 5 degrees above normal, apparently
caused by a lack of upwelling.— a process that brings cold, nutrient-rich
water to the surface and jump-starts the marine food chain.
This spring, a record number of dead seabirds washed up on beaches from
central California to British Columbia … five to 10 times the highest number
of bird deaths seen before.
"Something big is going on out there," said Julia Parrish, an associate
professor in the School of Aquatic Fisheries and Sciences at the University
of Washington . "I'm left with no obvious smoking gun, but birds are a good
signal because they feed high up on the food chain."
"In 50 years, this has never happened," said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer
with NOAA in Newport, OR. "If this continues, we will have a food chain
that is basically impoverished from the very lowest levels."
NOAA's June and July surveys of juvenile salmon off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia indicate a 20 to 30 percent drop in populations, compared with surveys from 1998-2004, especially coho and chinook.
"Nobody saw this coming," said Bill Sydeman, director of marine ecology at Point Reyes Bird Observatory.
Higher water temperatures are typically seen during an El Niño. But this is not an El Niño year.
See the full article by Carina Stanton with the Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... an13m.html
Underwater volcano erupting 700 miles SE of Tokyo - July 3, 2005 -
The coast guard sent helicopters to monitor a huge column of steam more than
half-a-mile wide rising above the Pacific Ocean southeast of Tokyo, and warned
ships to stay away. The water in the area was brick-red.
"It's highly likely that it's caused by an eruption of an underwater volcano,"
coast guard spokesman Shigeyuki Sato said.
"We suspect the undersea volcanic moves are becoming active," said another coast guard official.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 646185.stm
.
Sea levels change faster than thought - 20 April 2005 - New evidence confirms that sea levels have risen and fallen much more quickly and frequently than previously believed. A new method of dating dead corals reveals a long record of repeated rises and drops in sea level of 6 to 30 meters over just thousands of years.
That's too fast to be explained by regular shifts in the Earth's orbit that are usually considered responsible for the ice ages, as well as the loss or gain of water from the oceans. (As you know if you've read my book, I think it's caused by underwater volcanism unleashed by the ice-age cycle, leading to assive evaporation.)
Dr William Thompson of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Associate Professor Steven Goldstein of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University published their findings in the current issue of Science.
.
Underwater volcano grows 1,000 feet in four years
– May 25, 2005 - On an expedition to observe the Vailulu'u Volcano, an underwater volcano discovered in 1999 near American Samoa, scientists saw another volcano growing out of the first, like the island in the middle of Crater Lake .
Scientists dubbed the new volcano, about 20 miles (32 km) east of the island of Ta'u , Nafanua after the Samoan goddess of war. Growing at a rate of about 8 inches (20 cm) a day, Nafanua measured nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters) high. It could go much higher, said geologist Hubert Staudigel from the University of California at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The scientists were so amazed to find eels living in the newly formed lava that they
nicknamed the population "Eel City."
(Knowing that the temperature of the basalt should be around 2150 degrees Fahrenheit, I wonder why don’t we see any comments about how much heat underwater volcanoes must be pouring into the seas?)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7984261/?GT1=6542
.
Underwater Volcanoes Erupting Simultaneously All Over the World - March 14, 2005 -
Hundreds of underwater volcanoes are erupting all over the world, especially around the Ring of Fire, reportsthe India Daily.
Underwater volcanoes are erupting in Australia, Greece, New Zealand and many other countries including the American Northwest, which is experiencing an unprecedented level of underwater volcanism. Andaman Nicobar Island is experiencing underwater volcanism in both the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal .
Tectonic movements have gone up by several folds in the last nine months, say geologists, so much so that they don’t have enough monitoring mechanisms to keep track.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/1904.asp
(I don’t know how valid these sources are, but if they are correct, then I am very concerned that this could be the trigger that sends us into the ice age.
As you know if you’ve read my book, I think underwater volcanoes (not humans) are heating our seas. I also think these warmer seas will lead us into an ice age. I’m therefore very anxious to learn how much magma may be pouring into the sea right now.
If there’s a tremendous amount of magma pouring into the ocean, the magma could be as much as 2,150 degrees Fahrenheit - 10 times the boiling point – which could lead to much warmer seas and thence to an ice age.)
Such warming of the Northwest seas has happened before. There’s an old Makah Indian story that I tell in my book (page 181), and I’d like to repeat it here.
“Tales of warming seas also come from the Makah Indians, who live at Neah Bay on the northwest corner of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. They tell of a time when "the sea rose without any waves until it submerged Cape Flattery." "The water on its rise became very warm, and as it came up to the houses, those who had canoes put their effects in them, and floated off with the current."
I sincerely hope that this is not the beginning, but I fear that it could be.
* * *
More than 4,300 undersea earthquakes in five days!
- March 7, 2005 – "It might be a volcanic eruption or a magma event on the ridge," said Garry Rogers, a seismologist with the Geological Survey of Canada in Vancouver , B.C. "These earthquake swarms are associated with sea floor spreading [underwater volcanic activity]," said Robert P. Dziak, an oceanographer at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon.
The undersea quakes, about a mile-and-a-half below the ocean surface, weren’t large enough to trigger a tsunami, so the experts advise us not to worry.
I hope they’re correct, but if there’s a tremendous amount of magma pouring into the ocean I think we have a problem. The magma could be as much as 2,150 degrees Fahrenheit - 10 times the boiling point – which could lead to much warmer seas and thence to an ice age.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/ ... y=6420&slu g=CAN%20Undersea%20Quakes
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Underwater volcano found off Antarctic coast. May 21, 2004. The National Science Foundation announced yesterday that a previously unknown underwater volcano has been discovered in an area known as the Antarctic Sound at the northernmost tip of Antarctica.
Dredges on the research vessel Lawrence M. Gould “recovered abundant fresh basalt.” Although large areas of the volcano were colonized by submarine life, none was found around the volcano itself, indicating that lava had flowed fairly recently. Temperature probes showed signs of geothermal heating of seawater.
http://www.nsf.gov/home/news.html#story1
* * *
NASA confirms changing Atlantic currents – 15 April 2004 - "Whether the trend is part of a natural cycle or the result of other factors related to global warming is unknown."
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0415gyre.html
* * *
Rapid heating in the deepest waters of the Pacific Ocean. Oceanographers are “baffled.”
They don’t understand how the deeper waters could be heating so quickly, although it may be possible
that underwater volcanic activity may be the culprit. (This is the first time I’ve heard any scientist admit that underwater volcanism may be heating the seas.)
A recent article entitled “Changing Climate” talks about newly discovered rapid heating in the Pacific Ocean. "We find that the deepest waters of the North Pacific Ocean have warmed significantly across the entire width of the ocean basin," Japanese and Canadian scientists report in the current issue of the journal Nature.”
Oceanographers are “baffled.” They don’t understand how the deeper waters could be heating so quickly.
“Climate scientist Andrew Weaver, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said the undersea-volcanism possibility "was one of the first things I thought about" when he read the Nature paper. Even so, Weaver doubts that explanation because the warming is so uniform over a large area, whereas undersea volcanism tends to be along midocean ridges.” (March 1, 2004, by Keay Davidson, Chronicle science writer)
Anyone who has read my book knows that I think the heating is caused by underwater volcanism, which will lead directly to an ice age. This is the first time that I’ve seen anyone willing to admit that underwater volcanism may be heating the seas.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 5B7VE1.DTL
* * *
Undersea eruptions killing billions of fish. Feb 4, 2004. Undersea eruptions of noxious hydrogen sulphide are devastating one of the world’s richest fisheries. Satellite images show that toxic eruptions off the coast of Namibia are more frequent and widespread than anyone realized. The area supports a fishery that was worth around $400 million in 1998, providing Namibia with its second largest source of revenue after mining. (My guess is that this is caused by underwater volcanic activity.)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994639
.See also:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... g_id=11988
Volcanism killed the Dinosaurs. "It wasn't the impact of an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, reports Science Daily of new research from Cardiff University in Wales. "It was a mantle plume, a huge volcanic eruption from deep within Earth's mantle...." "The massive outpouring of lava, ashes, and gas can have significant effects on climate." (I agree, I agree, I agree. I think the mantle plume heated the seas. This caused increased evaporation. Then the excess moisture rose into the skies, skies which had already cooled because of the ash. This lead to massive increases in snowfall, and to an ice age. And that's what I've been saying all along.)
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/pa ... ddinosaurs
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Here's an important study showing that El Niño activity correlates with ice ages. (Meyerson, Mayewski, et al., Annals of Glaciology 35: 430-436.)
The authors found that a shift toward cooler conditions during the Little Ice Age was concurrent with an increase in the frequency of El Niño events. This is contrary to what is generally predicted by climate models, where cooling leads to less El Niño activity and warming leads to more.
The findings were harmonious with the historical El Niño chronology of both South America and the Nile region, which depict "increased El Niño activity during the period of the Little Ice Age and decreased El Niño activity during the Medieval Warm Period.
http://www.co2science.org/journal/2003/v6n34c1.htm
This goes along with what I have been saying for years - that today's increase in El Niño activity is the precursor to an ice age.
* * * * *
We’ve forgotten that this isn’t the first time our seas have warmed. Sea temperatures also shot upward 10º to 18ºF just prior to the last ice age.
As the oceans warmed, evaporation increased. The excess moisture then fell to the ground as giant blizzards, giant storms and floods (Noah's Deluge type floods), and a new ice age began.
The same thing is happening today.
It’s not global warming, it’s ocean warming, and humans have nothing to do with it. Our seas are being heated, I believe, by underwater volcanism. Here’s why:
We are living in a period of vastly increased volcanism, said Dixy Lee Ray in her 1993 book Environmental Overkill, the greatest in 500 years.
Eighty percent of all volcanism (say experts at NOAA) occurs underwater.
Therefore, underwater volcanism should also be the greatest in 500 years.
Our seas, heated by underwater volcanism, are leading us directly into the next ice age . . . and we don’t even know it.
That's what El Niño is all about. Warmer seas send excess moisture into the sky, leading to increased precipitation.
Worldwide flood activity is the worst since before Christopher Columbus. In Poland, it's the worst in several thousand years. In the U.S., precipitation has increased 20 percent just since 1970. This is no coincidence.
When that precipitation begins falling in the winter, you have the makings of an ice age.
You may have seen the articles about the deaths of many giant squids, and how their demise may be attributable to "global warming." I attribute their deaths to ocean warming, ocean warming caused by underwater volcanoes. After all, the warming begins at 10,000 feet down, far too deep for humans to be at fault. (Oct 2002)
See "Ice ages looked like El Niño" in the July 12, 2002 issue of Nature. "During past ice ages," the article says, "the tropical Pacific Ocean behaved rather as it does to day in an El Niño event." "Shifts between warm and cool global average temperatures look like super El Niños."
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020708/020708-19.html
See also, "Global climate: no change" in the July 12 issued of Nature. Global climate 50,000 years ago was rather like that of today, the article says. Studies of fossilized trees in southern Chile reveal that the climate between the last two ice ages varied much as it does now. "Climate fluctuations closely resemble those we are experiencing now, including the 2--5--year spell of El Niño oscillations."
http://www.nature.com/nsu/010329/010329-13.html
See also "Global climate 50,000 years ago was rather like that of today," says an article in the July 12 issue of Nature.. Studies of fossilized trees in southern Chile reveal that climate fluctuations between the last two ice ages closely resemble those we are experiencing now, including the 2--5--year spell of El Niño oscillations.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/010329/010329-13.html
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"Fiery birth of a new Pacific island!"
Thus read the May 24, 2000 announcement from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization (CSIRO).
CSIRO had sent a team of researchers to the Soloman Islands east of Australia to study a "dormant" underwater volcano.
Instead, their target was very much alive.
The scientists watched in amazement as lava and ash blasted through the surface of the Pacific Ocean and then continued rising more than 200 feet into the sky. Plumes of steam and smoke rose thousands of feet above the ocean's surface.
They were witnessing the birth of the Island Kavachi.
They were also witnessing "global warming" at work.
Volcanic islands such as Kavachi are formed as underwater volcanoes pump vast amounts of red-hot basalt into the seas. The basalt can reach temperatures of up to 2,150 degrees Fahrenheit; ten times the boiling point.
Kavachi confirms observations that submarine volcano chains contibute significantly to heat entering the oceans, said Gary Massoth of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences in Darwin.
Rising more than 3,000 feet above the ocean floor, Kavachi is just one of thousands of volcanic islands that contribute to ocean warming. Kavachi has formed at least 8 times in the past 60 years, only to recede beneath the water. At times, Kavachi has reached more than 500 feet in length.
Most underwater volcanoes—also called "seamounts"—erupt so far beneath the sea that their steam and gasses never reach the surface. Still, they contribute an incredible amount of heat to the world's oceans.
Submarine volcanoes can be even larger than above-water volcanoes. Hawaii's undersea Loihi volcano, for instance, towers almost 10,000 feet above the ocean floor, which is taller than Mount St. Helens.
Even then, Loihi's top remains about a half mile below the surface of the ocean. Researchers estimate that Loihi will reach the surface of the ocean and officially become an island in about 100,000 years.
As with other underwater volcanoes, Loihi contributes to ocean warming. During a 1996 eruption of Loihi, researchers recorded the temperature of the surrounding water at almost 400°F.
Worldwide, as many as 30,000 islands have been formed by underwater volcanoes, say researchers. The major islands in Hawaii, for example, were built around the active volcanoes at their centers. Hawaii's Big Island was formed by five large volcanoes, including Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on Earth.
Other islands birthed by undersea volcanic eruptions include the islands of Japan, the West Indies islands in the Caribbean, the Azores in the Atlantic, and hundreds of islands in the Pacific.
Today, most of the world's underwater volcanoes remain unmonitored, leaving us with no inkling of how much they contribute to "global warming."
I think we owe it to ourselves to find out.
See more photos of Kavachi erupting:
http://www.syd.dem.csiro.au/research/hy ... vachi.html
Carbon dioxide
On a related subject, let me ask you. If today's rising carbon dioxide are caused by humans, then what caused the dramatic rise in CO2 levels at the dinosaur extinction?
Research shows that there was "a sudden and dramatic rise" in carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere at the dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago. A recent report attributes the rise in CO2 levels to an asteroid impact. See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2038599.stm
I disagree. I think today's rise in CO2 levels can be attributed to our warming oceans. After all, the oceans are known as a carbon dioxide "sink," especially when the water is cold.
But as the water warms up, it releases CO2 into the atmosphere. This happens in much the same way that a warm bottle of home-brewed root beer will release CO2. And if you give that CO2 no way to escape, the bottle will explode.
We've got it backwards. We've got cause and effect in reverse.
The CO2 is not causing global warming. Instead, our warming oceans are releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
It's not global warming, it's ocean warming, and it's leading us into an ice age.
"Volcanic 'flood' linked to extinction"
"A huge outpouring of molten rock 250 million years ago may have been the decisive factor in the deaths of nearly all life forms on the Earth at that time." So says a recent article in the journal Science.
The flood basalts at the Siberian Traps covered around 3.9 million square kilometers, says Marc Reichow, of the University of Leicester, UK., an area much larger than previously believed.
Reichow's studies suggest that the "volcanic flood" was about one mile deep, and covered an area half the size of Australia.
See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2030075.stm
(Thanks to Adam Lemanski for this info.)
Question. If the vast majority of volcanic activity takes place under water, wouldn't it seem as if an underwater area several times the size of Australia should have been concurrently covered with a mile-deep layer of lava?
And every single one of those millions of kilometers of lava would have been incredibly hot; up to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit hot.
It's not global warming, it's ocean warming, and it's leading us into an ice age.
__________________
I think the same thing happened at the dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago. For anyone familiar with that extinction, you know that there was a huge volcanic outpouring at the time known as the Deccan Traps. It covered one million square miles of India and the surrounding areas under successive layers of basalt up to one-and-a-half-miles deep.
According to paleontologist Dewey McLean, a good portion of the Deccan Traps was submarine. This would explain why ocean temperatures at the dinosaur extinction rose by some 14° to 22°F. See
http://filebox.vt.edu/artsci/geology/mc ... index.html
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Intense volcanic activity linked to dinosaur-era extinctions - November 1, 2003: Peter Ward, a University of Washington paleontologist, thinks intense volcanic activity may have caused widespread extinctions 250 million years ago at the end-Permian, and about 200 million years ago at the end-Triassic.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031101/80/ecr08.html
