Re: Only nuclear power can now halt global warming

[LancerGT@AOL.COM]

"Anyway, if someone knows how the water initially accumulated on Greenland,  

I would be interested."

In the interest of eliminating some possible disinformation I have followed 

on this thread:



What 'held' the water in Greenland all of those years ago is what is still 

keeping it there now - its' solid state. Precipitation that falls in its' solid 

state will either melt in warmer areas or compress under its' own weight to 

form ice in colder ones - hence glaciation. So the ice cube got there as snow 

and there is no gravitational well that keeps it there. The Antarctic ice is a 

cap that sits largely on land (sans the adjacent ice shelves like the melting 

Ross) while the arctic sheet floats. Ice which floats adds no volume when 

melted.

     The Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) ice is a cap averaging 2.3 km in 

thickness that is  resting on land that is in some areas below sea-level. Melting it 

will raise sea level about 7 meters. Removal of such a significant ice load 

from a land mass will lead in time, to a local uplifting of that underlying 

land mass as land itself floats on an amorphous core - this uplifting by itself 

would not affect sea level or the volume of water the oceans contain even 

though it may locally appear to cause sea levels to drop ( like the old viking 

docks that are now well above water and still rising). The melt-water however, wou

ld still rest on land as does all water, with its' compressive effect far more 

distributed and less perceptible. 

    As far as has been determined, the ice on Kalaallit Nunaat is thining 

around the edges with an actual thickening in other areas toward the north and 

center of the Island currently muting any net impact on sea levels. There is 

increased ice flow around the edges of the cap due to what are believed to 

internal hydraulic factors relating to melt-water penetration and lubrication of the 

ice flows. One interesting note: data from the ice cores indicate that 

climatic changes appear to take place very suddenly when they do occur.

    It is important to understand what has happened in the past - to 

reference when examining current events. The Earth's previous warming events were not 

preceded by any human activity, and it might be foolish to presuppose that our 

actions -though not without impact- have the power to steer them. The 

dinosaurs had no combustion based economy nor did they embrace nuclear power. 



for a Kalaallit Nunaat topo map (subglacial with ice overlay)

http://home.comset.net/aaman63/glacial/greenln6.htm



for a more detailed study of the ice cap see

http://www.geophys.washington.edu/Surface/Glaciology/COURSES/ESS595B/Krabill_g

reenland.pdf



Best Regards,

David Lawrence