Lesson of an Ice-Age Flood & Today's Gulf Stream

In another case of our pre-history helping us make sense of our future, researchers have definitively confirmed what shut down the Gulf Stream some 10,000 years ago. In a tale that reads like something out of Lord of the Rings, this catastrophe might have lessons for our future.

It was almost 10,000 years ago, and it was the end of the last ice age and the North American Laurentide ice sheet that covered most of Canada and a large majority of the Northern United States was slowly retreating, making its way back north.

As it slowly made its way back north, leaving behind newly shaped lands, it also left large amounts of fresh water. Much of this water formed an inland sea, where the Great Lakes now preside. This inland sea is also the precursor of the Great Lakes, but what came first is of more importance.

The massive lake burst its borders, emptying down the Hudson Strait and right in to the Labrador Sea west of Greenland. The major problem was that this great body of fresh water emptied in to an area of the ocean which is an important part of the Gulf Stream, where the Atlantic waters which are brought north are frozen and the leftover saline heavy water falls to the bottom.

The influx of such a large amount of low saline water choked the system, and halted the Gulf Stream altogether.

Europe immediately  suffered what is now known as the Younger Dryas, or the Big Freeze. Greenland ice-cores which have recently been excavated show that in that area plummeting by up to 8 °C.

Until now, the above story has been much speculation, and little proof. But now Helga Kleiven and colleagues at the University of Bergen in Norway have discovered that this is exactly what happened, thanks to new studies conducted on the floor of the Labrador Sea.

A detailed study was carried out on sediments found on the sea floor, and found that there were sudden and dramatic changes at the time that the lake emptied. Included in these ‘changes’ was a flood of fine sediment from the land, which coincided with a large and quick drop in the amount of particles of magnetite, which are normally carried to the area by deep ocean currents. The changes happened within a decade or so, and were found to have happened in a warm climate, not dissimilar to those of today.

Mentioned at the top was the promise of lessons today. The reason that we need these lessons is because although in a slower fashion, the same thing is happening.

Great chunks of ice are braking off of Greenland instead of a steady melt. These icebergs are increasing the amount of freshwater found in the North Atlantic. Oceanographers believe that this may eventually lead to another shutdown of the Gulf Stream, leaving Europe in a pocket cold spot, while the rest of the planet warms.

Researchers now believe that the historical findings may help determine how much freshwater is needed to shut down the Gulf Stream. Hopefully, with a continual influx of new evidence such as this, further steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood of such an event reoccurring.

Posted by Josh Hill.

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Link:

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn13013-ancient-flood-brought-gulf-stream-to-a-halt.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Comments

[Sarah]

Nicely depicted in the B-grade movie - 'Day After Tomorrow' - also the movie that postulated a reasonable theory (separate from Hapgood's Crustal Shift theory) for 'sudden freezes' - an phenomonon to explain how mammoths were frozen in moments with undigested food still in their stomachs

[willem van aerschot]

clean energy ,and the solution for the Greenland gulfstream slowdown:

Put in sea a construction of windmills (out of the reach of icebergs) combined with electric boilers, these get preheated by suncollectors and sunmirrors.
the steam they produce gets used by steam engines wich produce again electricity ,salt and when you condesate the steam coming from the steam engines sweet water,the steam you don't need you blow into the air.
You take out salt water coming from the warm gulfstream and the left over salt from the steam engines gets used to release in the cold stream.
So the cold stream gets saltier again and and won't mingel with the warm gulfstream because before it was less saltier caused by the melting gletchers and slowing down the warm gulfstream becaurse less saltier water is lighter.
Preventing an possibel iceage.
The sweet water can then be used to make hydrogen ,so if there is for exampel a lot of wind and you don't need all that electricity , you are abel to stock it and use it later.
The rest of the steam you blow in the air.
The oxygen deriving from turning water into hydrogen can be devided in sea to clean the water and to make more suitabel for marinelife.
So you produce electricity and /or hydrogen
Wich you get to shore with pipelines or from tanks with tankers and cabels
Van Aerschot,willem
Reppelse baan 47
3271 Averbode,Belgium
email:willemva@skynet.be


Clean water ,clean energy ,and the solution for the gulfstream slowdown:

Put in sea a construction of windmills combined with electric boilers, these get preheated by suncollectors and sunmirrors.
the steam they produce gets used by steam engines wich produce again electricity ,salt and when you condesate the steam coming from the steam engines sweet water.
The salt water you take out of salt water coming from the warm gulfstream and the left over salt from the steam engines gets used to release in the cold stream.Or you make the cooled down gulfstream saltier by taking water from the surface and steam it and put the salt in the cooled down gulfstream.
So the cold stream gets saltier again and and won't mingel with the warm gulfstream because before it was less saltier caused by the melting gletchers and slowing down the warm gulfstream becaurse less saltier water is lighter.
Preventing an possibel iceage.
The sweet water can then be used to make hydrogen ,so if there is for exampel a lot of wind and you don't need all that electricity , you are abel to stock it and use it later.
The rest of the water can with adding of minnerals serve as drinking water.
The oxygen deriving from turning water into hydrogen can be devided in sea to clean the water and to make more suitabel for marinelife.
So you produce electricity and drinking water and /or hydrogen
wich you get to shore with pipelines and cabels