A jökulhlaup in East Antarctica is a Possibility, Says Researcher, Adding that Natural Dynamics Dwarf Man-Made Climate Change
The Captured Ice Shelf hypothesis predicts that glacial outburst floods, or jökulhlaups, can occur from the large ice age ice sheets. It has now been compared to data from subglacial Lake Vostok in East Antarctica, with surprising results.
(PRWEB) April 5, 2006 -- The Captured Ice Shelf (CIS) hypothesis predicts that glacial outburst floods, or jökulhlaups, can occur from the large ice age ice sheets. It has now been compared to data from subglacial Lake Vostok in East Antarctica. This modern lake confirms that the hypothesis is correct. Moreover, the analysis showed that the subglacial lake is at the verge of a jökulhlaup.
The study by Ulf Erlingsson is published in the latest issue of Geografiska Annaler, the journal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography ("Lake Vostok behaves like a ‘captured lake’ and may be near to creating an Antarctic jökulhlaup." Geografiska Annaler 88A(1):1-7, 2006).
Although an Antarctic jökulhlaup might be a dramatic event in our lifetime, Dr. Erlingsson predicts that the most profound result of confirming the CIS hypothesis will come in the form of a re-interpretion of ice sheet dynamics during the ice age. The implication is that global warming and sea level rise at the end of the ice age may have been much more dramatic than previously thought possible. These completely natural changes would dwarf anything predicted by the most pessimistic climate change scenarios presented for our century.
The journal is published by Blackwell at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/geoa
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