Arctic Ocean |
More then 13,000 years ago there
was a mega-flood
caused by the melting of the glaciers in North America .
This flood effectively changed the earth’s
climate creating a period that has been called the Little Ice Age or the Younger Dryas that
caused most of Europe to cool down for over 1400 years. It is thought by many
geologists that this flood was caused by a sudden drainage of Lake
Agassiz that occupied the area of Canada consisting of three different provinces Alberta , Saskatchewan and Manitoba . This was a lake larger than the Great Lakes combined that
was dumped into the Arctic Ocean causing the Gulf
Stream to cease flowing.
At the height of the flood
it is been estimated that more than 9500 km³ of water came from Lake Agassiz
effectively choking off the Gulf Stream preventing it from bringing warmth to
Europe.
Where this great amount
water came from was a puzzle to many geologists who originally thought this
great flood exited from the interior of North America
via the St.
Lawrence River. It is only been in recent years that they discovered that
this vast flood had exited into the Arctic
Ocean via the McKenzie River causing
it to be dumped into the Arctic
Ocean all at once.
This discovery led to the
Bateman report that indicates a large amount of freshwater flowing into the Arctic Ocean within a
short time prevented the Gulf
Stream from flowing northwards.
As we all know the Gulf
Stream acts like a huge conveyor belt bringing much-needed warm water from
the topics to the western coast of Europe while at the same time the much colder and salty water of
the Arctic Ocean sinks into the depths of the Atlantic by
skirting the coast of Greenland . According to the scientists this causes an overturning of
the Atlantic Ocean causing even more warm water to be drawn into the Gulf Stream
from the tropics.
Some scientists believe
that even today a period of rapid global warming is capable of causing a sharp
increase in the amount of freshwater running off the ice cap of Greenland that
would be capable of stopping the Gulf Stream causing a deep-freeze in Europe
capable of lasting for hundreds of years.
There are even some recent
satellite images as well as computer models that have been performed by
scientists at that indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet has undergone a period
of rapid melting that is been dumping large amounts of freshwater into the
North Atlantic Ocean. The question is can history repeat itself?
Recent satellite
observations as well as computer models performed by scientists have
demonstrated that the Greenland ice sheet is melting rapidly and dumping large amounts of
ice along with meltwater into the North
Atlantic . Could history repeat
itself?
References:
Mega-flood Triggered
Cooling 13,000 Years Ago, Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62U44D20100331
River reveals chilling tracks of ancient flood,
Nature News, http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100331/full/464657a.html
.
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