Today’s tsunami: This is what climate change looks like | Grist
So far, today's tsunami has mainly affected Japan -- there are reports of up to 300 dead in the coastal city of Sendai -- but future tsunamis could strike the U.S. and virtually any other coastal area of the world with equal or greater force, say scientists. In a little-heeded warning issued at a 2009 conference on the subject, experts outlined a range of mechanisms by which climate change could already be causing more earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity.
"When the ice is lost, the earth's crust bounces back up again and that triggers earthquakes, which trigger submarine landslides, which cause tsunamis," Bill McGuire, professor at University College London, told Reuters.
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19 comments:
Hey, I am not a scientist but what does loss of ice have to do with earth's crust bouncing back up? Isn't ice floating?
Wow! That's good information. We can forget all that old stuff about plate tectonics, Pacific "Ring of Fir," &etc. Who would have thought that Indonesia and Haiti would be rebounding from the Ice Age. It boggles the mind!
What loss of ice? WTF is this moron talking about?
No, actually, this is what happens when a country gets very rich and uses its human ingenuity to protect itself. It's also what happens when a society believes in the rule of law, private property, and markets. The article in Grist is what happens when
you are morally obtuse.
This earthquake is one of the strongest known. The death toll, though tragic, will be on the order of 1000.
The earthquake in Haiti last year, which was 100 times less in terms of magnitude, killed over 300,000.
The Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, magnitude 8.3, killed 140,000.
Personally, I'll take the extra 0.01% fraction of the atmosphere becoming CO2, if it means that 100,000 people stay alive.
And the ice caps have been receding for about 20,000 years.
Whether it is a pound of ice or a pound of water isn't it still being held up by the earth. It is not like the ice is being beamed up to the starship Enterprise and leaving the planet. Unlike the grey matter between the ears of this professor.
Are you serious? This is the end for the AGW crowd. The people can't take any more BS like this.
What's next: blaming the lack of earthquakes in global warming?
I believe the word "moron" covers it. "Ignorant" just doesn't resonate sufficiently. So, if it is CO2, what triggered the other four major earthquakes (this being 5th in magnitude in all of recorded history)?? I get so tired of these "scientists".
What do glaciers sit on? Think about it. Idiots.
Mr. Bill is worse than David Suzuki or Michio Kaku. He typically makes astounding statements and never provides any facts to support them. When he appears on the Discovery Channel, I know I can count on him to say something stupid.
The olde Proff is wrong - - -there was not ice off of Japan but 18,000 years ago there was 4,ooo meters of ice setting on Europe ... and most of that continent is still risng form the ice melt 15,000 years ago ..
All I can think is that the quote is taken out of context. As a geologist I would agree that, in principle, at the end of the ice age, there were unstable sediments on the various continental slopes that, as the land masses readjusted, would put some of them over the stability edge, especially if they were now saturated, and landslides would occur and tsunamis result. I'd also agree that as glacial masses melt off of volcanoes, pent-up volcanic pressures could cause/did cause eruptions. But all of that is historical and from major changes.
I cannot believe that a sober individual of science would say that current global warming of 0.65K since 1965 would do anything of the sort.
Is This man a scientist? Crustal rebound takes millions of years. This earthquake was caused by movement at a subducting plate boundary. This is where all severe earthquakes happen and the Pacific basin has more of these than anywhere else.
Ice Melt? complete rubbish!
There is concensus among scientists that humans provide about 3% of atmospheric CO2, that normal organic decay processes provide another possible 10%, which leaves nearly 90% of the natural supply to come from volcanic acivity. The 'solid' crust of the Earth is at most 40 miles thick under the continents and as little as 1/2 mile thick under the ocean. The lunar gravity lifts and drops the Earth's curst daily by 18". This movement was not detectable until highly accurate satillite GPS vertical measurements in the 90's and is now called "Earthtide". Changes in the solar & galactic particle bombardments cause changes in the Earth's fission rate which increase elemental gas production which is expressed as volcanic and Earthquake activity. For more on these fundamental forces read the article "Motive Force for all Climate Change" and the book "Slaying the Sky Dragon".
The motive forces at work in this Universe are far greater than the products of human organic combustion. The only valid claim of impact from increases of CO2 is the increase in photosynthesis. All CO2 climate change claims are made by Faux Science Witchdoctors.
We grilled some steaks yesterday, and they were slightly overdone. The reason: man made global warming!
I'm not a scientist or geologist, but I do know that the conditions that lead to natural events of this magnitude have been developing for thousands or perhaps even millions of years. Con-men cashing in on the events by stealing funds from gullible taxpayers on the the other hand is a more recent phenomenon, and the only real consequence of man-made CO2. . . well, that and little things like prosperity and more plants. The horror!
There is some truth to this provided that it is massive land based ice sheets that are melting then there will be an isostatic response. We see this in the geological record.
Ted Cooper
All this is happening because the world is over populated and since doctors won't let nature do it's job and people keep breeding like crazy this is natures only way to do it's job bottom line use birth control quit having 4 or 5 kids per family or nature will continue to kill and personally i don't blame her this world is over populated.
This tragedy was gigantic from the first second that the tidal wave hit though the counting of the dead has barely begun, but based on the little info already out, I think the death toll will be in the neighborhood of 50,000-100,000 - in just one town alone they think around 10,000 perished in the tsunami - that is one single town among hundreds of towns... Ten thousand Katrinas would not begin to cover the enormous area of the killer wave... Wrap your minds around that tidbit...
"...little-heeded warning..." The understatement is soooo beautiful! There's this guy in town who has been picketing for about ten years outside a certain bank that he claims ruined him. He yells at all the passersby how they too will be led to doom if they go inside. I think there is a good reason these warnings are little-heeded.
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