The Gulf Stream: THC or Wind Driven?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Dennis1234567

That's easy. In laymans terms it says the next train departs from platform seven instead of platform three.

I hear them say that all the time at London Waterloo.

ROFL nice one, dennis

[Paul mabbott]

And it's always on platform one ....

Originally Posted by Dennis1234567

That's easy. In laymans terms it says the next train departs from platform seven instead of platform three.
I hear them say that all the time at London Waterloo.

[speckled wood]

Brings back memories of a Chargeman on Platforms 13 & 14 at Manchester Piccadilly back in the 1970s ."The next down train will be on the up platform and the next up train on the down".

[Earth Hart]

Seems this thread is going of the rails as well. No train spotters please.

Let's get it back on track.

Latest research shows that the main current is dropping off between Iceland & the Faeroe Islands, a retreat of some 600 miles. Wonder how long it will be before we start having Real Winters like they do in Labrador?

[speckled wood]

Originally Posted by Earth Hart

Latest research shows that the main current is dropping off between Iceland & the Faeroe Islands, a retreat of some 600 miles. Wonder how long it will be before we start having Real Winters like they do in Labrador?

Of interest would be to know how long it has been in our favour and whether it has retreated before?

[Dennis1234567]

In the last few hundred million years the stream stopped hundreds of times. The last estimated stoppage was in the region of 8200 years ago. The result of that stoppage caused half to one mile thick ice sheet covering all of europe and north America. The weight of the ice was so heavy it squashed the planet into a slight pear shape. That ice age lasted about one hundred years.

In 1300 AD there was an "almost stopped" flow of the gulf stream that caused what the pentigon calls the little ice age

In short, every time you hear the term "ice age" think stopped gulf stream because it's not possible to have one without the other, and one brings the other.

[Barnes]

Dennis I think your numbers are a bit off.

While the Atlantic circulation is certainly millions of years old it can't predate the Atlantic so not a " few hundred million years".

The last Ice age ended around 12,000 years ago and while continental glaciers certainly cause isostatic depression of continental plates that doesn't amount to changing the overall shape of the earth - although the theoretical 'snowball earth' scenario suggested to have occurred in the pre Cambrian may have altered the earth's shape.

The concept of a 'little ice age' has a chequered history, in general it's use now is in relation to a northern European 'cooling' in the post medieval period - the role of the Gulf Stream in this period is not yet established.

Overall it is difficult to make sense of local changes in the Gulf Stream because without long term observation it is not possible to say what is a normal short term variation and what is evidence of a progressive long term trend. However the rapid fall in salinity of the ocean north of the British Isles, which has been recorded in recent years is probably a sign that major change is likely to be underway.

B

[Dennis1234567]

Dry/Ice: Global Warming Revealed

[onionade]

i watched this and thought it put things into persperctive on this subject quite well.

BBC - Science & Nature - Horizon - Big Chill

i know this episode (and many others of horizon) can be d/l from a peer to peer program called -> e-mule

[Earth Hart]

Originally Posted by onionade

i watched this and thought it put things into persperctive on this subject quite well.

BBC - Science & Nature - Horizon - Big Chill

i know this episode (and many others of horizon) can be d/l from a peer to peer program called -> e-mule

I watched that prog.,& as the end credits were rolling, my ex phoned & asked me if I'd seen Horizon, is the pope cathlic? She said she wished she'd listened to me back in the '80s, as I'd written an article called "The Other Stream" for the mag Sussex Nature. He who laughs last...