Earth May Experience “Sudden Ice Ageâ€
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In the film, "The Day After Tomorrow," the world gets gripped in ice within the span of just a few weeks. Now research now suggests an eerily similar event might indeed have occurred in the past.
Looking ahead to the future, there is no reason why such a freeze shouldn't happen again — and in ironic fashion it could be precipitated if ongoing changes in climate force the Greenland ice sheet to suddenly melt, scientists say.
Starting roughly 12,800 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere was gripped by a chill that lasted some 1,300 years. Known by scientists as the Younger Dryas and nicknamed the"Big Freeze," geological evidence suggests it was brought on when a vast pulse of fresh water — a greater volume than all of North America's Great Lakes combined — poured into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
By looking at isotopes of carbon in each slice, the researchers could deduce how productive the lake was. When plants grow in lakes, they prefer carbon-12 to make up their organic tissue — that is, carbon atoms that have 12 protons and neutrons in total in their nucleus. This leaves the lake water with relatively more carbon-13. At the same time, oxygen isotopes give a picture of temperature — when animals or plants produce calcium carbonate, the ratio of oxygen-16 and oxygen-18 isotopes within are related to temperature.
At the start of the Younger Dryas, Patterson and his colleagues discovered temperatures and lake productivity dropped over the course of just a few years.
"It would be like taking Ireland today and moving it up to above the Arctic Circle, creating icy conditions in a very short period of time," Patterson said.
Their findings also suggest that it may have taken 100 to 200 years before the lake and climate recovered, rather than the decade or so that Greenland ice cores had indicated.
"This makes sense because it would take time for the ocean and atmospheric circulation to turn on again," Patterson said.
The discrepancies between the evidence from the mud core and the ice cores might be due to disturbances in how material flowed within the ice. "Sometimes there's melting, and you have percolation of material between layers, which can blur the records," Patterson explained. "We found a core that had not been disturbed even on a millimeter by millimeter basis, so the sediment had been layered in order since it was deposited."
Chilly future
Looking ahead to the future, Patterson said there was no reason why a big freeze shouldn't happen again.
"If the Greenland ice sheet melted suddenly it would be catastrophic," he said.
This kind of scenario would not discount evidence pointing toward global warming — after all, it leans on the Greenland ice sheet melting.
"We could say that global warming could lead to a dramatic cooling," Patterson told LiveScience. "This should serve as a further warning rather than a pass."
"People assume that we're political, that we're either pro-global-warming or anti-global-warming, when it's really neither," Patterson added. "Our goal is just to understand climate."
Patterson and his colleagues detailed their findings at the European Science Foundation BOREAS conference on humans in the Arctic, in Rovaniemi, Finland.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34242705...ience-science/ -
ice at poles are fresh pure water.how did that happen when everywhere is salt water?unless planet area was fresh water from start of freezing action a long time ago?and why is da water surrounding it salty?
conclusion:earth is actually drying up from time hence water is saturated with minerals....dat accounts fer its saltiness as compared to icebergs which are pure water.dinosaurs that lived in sea couldnt take salty oceans and died thereafter.as time goes the minerals dissolve in waters n can only revert back to pure water which isnt salty by rain.
the only place with many variety of creatures which live in fresh water would be the amazon jungles and mekong delta.that accounts of live captured ancient life forms from dinosaur age.the sea is the one thats evolving to a futuristic world......as the sea changes its salt n mineral contents all the time.
how did the change of temp happen?/as the earth shifts and dun gets enugh sun n heat...that area away from sunlight will freeze up.the entire space n galaxy is cold,,,,,,,,,its only heated if theres a sun.so.............if earth atmosphere was tilted from axis of origin from time...............then ice on that portion will melt and the areas tats not icy will soldify and freeze up!so far from reports....they sezs the icy areas are all shrinkin...meanin planet earth is going nearer the sun and not stayin at one trajectory or wat ya calll it.just a few metres nearer the sun is enough to raise temperatures .....enough to kill lifeforms.
think everyone on planet is goin to get baked like a roast chicken in a very hot oven timed at 10000hours.and thats what happened to the moon.....mars........etc......all devoid of life after being baked by sun..........it then later on went away from sun and cooled down with everything burnt off and diintegrated away for 100000 years.perhaps if the asrtronanuts dug into the moon surface......guarntee can find some spectacles or porn dvd from another civilisation.
what to do????build a planet resembling something like the death star from star wars n launch it into another orbit.
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why bother
our gahmen will solve it
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they cant look after their own citizens properly let alone solve end of the world problems.
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cos they everyhting also can what
they only take care of their diamond rice bowl
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hmmm....and .....u let them???
to repaeat a mistake and relive the mistake again and again is worse than hell.
eg)repaeat
correction:repaeat repaeat repaeat
2nd correction:repaet repaet repaet
3rd correction: repat repat repat
4th correction:report report report
5th
6th
finally 7th correction:repeat repeat repeat
1 week later:
repeat is spelt as repaedt
this is hell for everyone except for the person makin mistake
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until today i didn't many damn mistakes those buggers had made
this is their style aka pattern of doing thing/ getting work done
die die also never admit mistakes
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even if they admited it...........................then what?end of story??they say sorry only at most.meanwhile u see kids n people toiling and wastin each other fer his nuts.
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to them
1 - pacify the people
2 - money to brainwash the people
3 - power to control the people
now children same as adult - all under stress
why pr and ft are going to replace in school and workplace
men got ns ict to perform
want to bye bye but no money - pui
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Bukit Timah residents unhappy about the “freak” storm
November 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Top NewsWritten by Our Correspondent
Some Bukit Timah residents have expressed their unhappiness about the “freak” storm which occurred on Thursday, causing tremendous damage to their properties and cars.
Analyst Norman Yap told the state media:
“It has been two days now, and no one has told us if any preventive measures are being taken. This may be a rare event, but the infrastructure should be in place to handle it.”
Another resident Mr Liang said:
“I was concerned about casualties in the flood, so perhaps the Government can relook the drainage system.”
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim had described the flooding of parts of Bukit Timah on Thursday as a “freak” event that occurs once in 50 years.
Following the flooding which damaged the buildings, amenities and cars in the area, PUB has called for tenders to widen the canals in Bukit Timah.
Dr Yaacob did not explain why the canals were not widened earlier to prepare for this “freak” event”. He claimed that it is “not possible” to plan for every event.
The canals were built initially in 1972. Mr Yaacob became the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources in 2004.
Besides the flooding, the mass food poisoning outbreak at the Geylang Serai temporary market in April this year was also a “freak” event which could not be planned for.
The extent of the damage to the areas affected by the flood is still being calculated.
It is unlikely that PUB or other government agency will accept responsibility for the inadequate public works done since it was a “freak” event in the first place.
Interview source: Sunday Times, 22 November 2009
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mr tan,
immigration is very hard in usa,australia and those normal countries sporeans go to.in the past years or a decade ago u can go there n get p.r. easy.
now,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,very hard.no chance.need to wait many years just for them to say ok.
i was lucky because i hit it when the metal was still ok to werk wiv.
.............................u could be stuck in spore even if u got a degree from way things look.the only way is to make your enviroment comfortable.money is not what they look for in overseas immigration...there are people who go off 7k nia and still get p.r.but if u werk hard u should get some amount to see to it that u got food n place to stay.
u may ne stuck in spore...........if i were to get stuck in spore....i would be standing outside istana or pm office everyday.
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Mr Gattlinggun80
you are right
australia, us, etc they are also looking for skilled workers and not just money
must know their culture, history of their country, their law, pass tofel or ielts, etc
i really feed up eith their excuse and here is very stressful until everybody appear to be gloomy
bad for one's health