Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic

Yet another cool Discovery Channel show

"Fury in the Abyss," about the deep ocean, and how the deep currents change our climate. A delicate balance of water salinity, cold water sinking, and warm water rising, apparently generate a worldwide pattern of ocean water movement that has given us an unusually stable climate for about 10,000 years. Interestingly, a "hiccup" at the end of the last Ice Age, about 13,000 years ago when things were finally warming up, screwed up this ocean current pattern and we dropped back into a cold climate for about a thousand years. One of the scientists on the show blamed a massive influx of fresh water from a huge glacial meltwater flood that loused up the salinity balance which created the currents.

Other scientists were concerned that too much fresh water from ice melt due to global warming, or an increase in river flow due to the increased rainfall of global warming, could also screw up the salinity balance of the currents.

The ironic result, according to this theory, is that "global warming" could result in a massive temperature drop in upper latitudes, just as it did 13,000 years ago. Geez, ya can't win.

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