This is in addition to 47 already known about and eruption would melt more ice in region affected by climate change
This is in addition to 47 already known about and eruption would melt more ice in region affected by climate change
Saturday 12 August 2017 18.11 EDT Last modified on Saturday 12 August 2017 20.08 EDT
Scientists have uncovered the largest volcanic region on Earth – two kilometres below the surface of the vast ice sheet that covers west Antarctica.
The project, by Edinburgh University researchers, has revealed almost 100 volcanoes – with the highest as tall as the Eiger, which stands at almost 4,000 metres in Switzerland.
Geologists say this huge region is likely to dwarf that of east Africa’s volcanic ridge, currently rated the densest concentration of volcanoes in the world.
And the activity of this range could have worrying consequences, they have warned. “If one of these volcanoes were to erupt it could further destabilise west Antarctica’s ice sheets,” said glacier expert Robert Bingham, one of the paper’s authors. “Anything that causes the melting of ice – which an eruption certainly would – is likely to speed up the flow of ice into the sea.
“The big question is: how active are these volcanoes? That is something we need to determine as quickly as possible.”
The Edinburgh volcano survey, reported in the Geological Society’s special publications series, involved studying the underside of the west Antarctica ice sheet for hidden peaks of basalt rock similar to those produced by the region’s other volcanoes. Their tips actually lie above the ice and have been spotted by polar explorers over the past century.
But how many lie below the ice? This question was originally asked by the team’s youngest member, Max Van Wyk de Vries, an undergraduate at the university’s school of geosciences and a self-confessed volcano fanatic. He set up the project with the help of Bingham. Their study involved analysing measurements made by previous surveys, which involved the use of ice-penetrating radar, carried either by planes or land vehicles, to survey strips of the west Antarctic ice.
The results were then compared with satellite and database records and geological information from other aerial surveys. “Essentially, we were looking for evidence of volcanic cones sticking up into the ice,” Bingham said.
After the team had collated the results, it reported a staggering 91 previously unknown volcanoes, adding to the 47 others that had been discovered over the previous century of exploring the region.
These newly discovered volcanoes range in height from 100 to 3,850 metres. All are covered in ice, which sometimes lies in layers that are more than 4km thick in the region. These active peaks are concentrated in a region known as the west Antarctic rift system, which stretches 3,500km from Antarctica’s Ross ice shelf to the Antarctic peninsula.
HT/Gary Meyers
UPDATE 8/14/17 8:39 Pacific time.
The Mail has gotten into the story and of course these volcanoes may actually be being exacerbated by the dreaded Climate Change thingy.
Dr Bingham’s fear is that the Antarctic ocean’s meltwater outflows will cause sea levels to rise.
‘We just don’t know about how active these volcanoes have been in the past.
‘The most volcanism that is going in the world at present is in regions that have only recently lost their glacier covering – after the end of the last ice age. These places include Iceland and Alaska.
‘Theory suggests that this is occurring because, without ice sheets on top of them, there is a release of pressure on the regions’ volcanoes and they become more active.’
Significant warming caused by climate change in west Antarctica has already affected its ice sheets.
If they reduce significantly, this could release pressure on volcanoes lying below.
This would lead to eruptions that could further destabilise ice sheets and enhance sea level rises, something Dr Bingham is keen to monitor.
‘It is something we will have to watch closely.
Read the full Daily Mail story here.
HT/lewispbuckingham
CAGW Causes Melting Ice Sheets Which Causes Increased Volcanism Which Causes More CAGW. How Convienient and Predictable. Hopefully D. Rump Will Stop Paying Fools Like This to Fabricate such Nonsense.
OT: Thundersnow / sleet in Bozeman, MT right now!
“Significant warming caused by climate change in west Antarctica has already affected its ice sheets.”
And the source data for this claim is?…… I understood that the Antarctic had cooled significantly. I also understood that ice doesn’t melt at temperatures below 273K. Perhaps I’m deluded.
You are deluded, in the prescence of ice it melts at a lower temperature. Reference the road workers use ice to clear frozen roads
For ice read salt
Dave, best you check that statement out scientifically……salty water or not
Honest CAGW is real and we will all drown when the ice caps melt. Given me a few million and I will tell you which year (+/- 100) that will be in.
Pinocchio
Ooops sorry about the nose
This one is just hilarious. The clear and desperate almost pleading implication in some articles is that – oh yes, all West Antarctic melting to date has been caused by anthropogenic global warming but these naughty volcanoes may contribute to the ice loss with inevitable calamitous sea level rise in the future. It must be cruel to be a pseudoscience alarmist at this time in history as each and every ‘reliable’ buttress of warmism crumbles before their horrified eyes.
The West Antarctic glacier melt used to be a handy reach in the ever-shrinking grab-bag of sure-fire global warming smoking guns and now even the village idiot knows it’s really a smoking volcano. How they could have been so stupid is beyond me as its been known for decades that there lies a massive rift system with associated volcanoes running along the West Antarctic Peninsular and along the edge of the Ross Sea. Did they honestly think that people would believe while East Antarctica cooled and gained ice mass that cunning old human emitted carbon dioxide could selectively heat the peninsular in the West?
I guess it’s back to jumping up and down, gibbering, shrieking and faeces flinging while pointing wild-eyed at storms (aka climate disruption) and coastal erosion (aka accelerating sea level rise). Or just possibly a tactical retreat to the old ‘evil twin’ standby of ocean acidification until the dust settles.
“It must be cruel to be a pseudoscience alarmist at this time in history as each and every ‘reliable’ buttress of warmism crumbles before their horrified eyes.”
Well summated.
One alarmist icon down.
pseudoscience alarmist is a lovely term in this case.
” Did they honestly think that people would believe while East Antarctica cooled and gained ice mass that cunning old human emitted carbon dioxide could selectively heat the peninsular in the West?”
YES
Vulcanos more active because of climate change induced melting ice. I always thought the vulcanos were melting the ice in the first place. Sounds to me like putting the horse behind the cart .
Yes, volcanos do melt ice (google “jökulhlaup”), but it is well established particularly on Iceland that volcanic activity increases significantly during and immediately after an ice-cap melts. It would be very odd otherwise, since there is a great pressure release as the ice melts.
“Significant warming caused by climate change in west Antarctica has already affected its ice sheets.”
is patently false. I’ve spoken with members of the British Antarctic Survey and none of them said this was in fact what they thought, they said they “don’t know at present”
In fact I can directly quote that from Tamsin Edwards from BAS. She stated that very thing. No absolute claims about human causes whatsoever from Tamsin.
look harder.
The well known scientist Wikipedia.
“The West Antarctic ice sheet has warmed by more than 0.1 °C/decade in the last 50 years, with most of the warming occurring in winter and spring. Research published in 2009 found that overall the continent had become warmer since the 1950s, a finding consistent with the influence of man-made climate change:
“We can’t pin it down, but it certainly is consistent with the influence of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels”, said NASA scientist Drew Shindell, another study co-author. “
How will the ‘drowners’ (who are screaming that the sea level rising will drown us all) decide what proportion of rising sea level is due to volcanic ice melt compared with CO2 induced ice melt? They may be able to build yet another new model!
I’m also wondering if the volcanic activity has any relationship to the recent cracking and breakup of the ice sheet which has been slated as ‘evidence’ for CO2 induced warming.
“I’m also wondering if the volcanic activity has any relationship to the recent cracking and breakup of the ice sheet which has been slated as ‘evidence’ for CO2 induced warming.”
Not the (quite normal) breakup of shelf-ice edges. It might well have some influence on the fast motion of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea area. Bottom melting must be fairly extensive under the WAIS.
This isn’t exactly world-shaking news.The West Antarctic Rift is one of only two major avtive Rift valleys on Earth today. Rift valleys are always linked to vulcanism and have lots of active volcanos.
By the way here is a paragraph from the paper that you can be absolutely sure will never be mentioned by the MSM:
“ice retreat will continue unabated as long as the ice bed is smooth and downslopes inland, but that any increase in roughness or obstacle in the bed can act to delay or stem retreat (Ritz et al. 2015; Nias
et al.2016). We have identified here a number of volcanic edifices sitting within the WAIS’ deep basins; these edifices, which are likely to owe their existence to volcanism, could represent some of the most in
fluential pinning points for past and future ice retreat”
1998 japanese anime evangilean was right. first impact ( arctic explosion ) will exterminate 1/3 humanity with floods….then comes the…mass starvation….
Well as long as the giant demon things don’t come out, I’m sure we’ll be alright.
But will it raise the Yamato and Musashi from the ocean floor so they can be turned into Space Battleships?
One thing about geology, when you
Al Stewart’s lyrics say it all.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIUU8o3L8-o&w=560&h=315%5D
jpatrick,
Hadn’t heard that before…. It’s good!
Thanks!
One thing about geology, when you mix it with politics it’s even more likely to be off the mark. Geo is detective work. A giant field of volcanoes, if active, is, all by itself, capable of melting a lot of ice and IS the the danger, 1000C direct.
A couple of degrees warming, still leaves the region 20-40″C below zero and 4km of ice ain’t going anywhere with paltry global warming even if it was going to happen. This is bad forensics! I hope the once stalwart, intrepid explorers that geologists used to be haven’t been softened in body and mind by playdough!
You need to consider the British tabloids’ volcano reporting for West Antarctica and their perennial terrorist news injections on Yellowstone as compared to, say, coverage in American newspapers in Bozeman Montana on Yellowstone’s doorstep. In an apparent violation of the inverse-square law the Brits are far more keenly aware of impending doom despite the 4,000mi distance. There are several theories about this. Psychologists had posed a back-formation of empathy and warning towards the Yanks as unrequited thanks for the US’s assistance during WWII, now mostly discredited as the tabloids take up the attack on the United States’ democratically elected leader. The prevailing theory with more scientific basis is that Yellowstone emits waves of peril and doom in all directions, by the same mechanism causing the Norris Plateau (and perhaps the West Antarctica sheet) to rise and fall. In nearby Bozeman the waves of peril arrive in phase, and they do not sense it because they are merely riding upon it as does a ship atop massive ocean swell. But in faraway Britain, owing in part to the focusing effect of its celebrated iron ore deposits, waves of doom and peril arrive from several directions out of phase and Britons are tossed into keen awareness, and feel the dire necessity to warn us.
It is hoped that with the discovery of Antarctica peril the nexus of doom might globally shift to give Britons a respite from trying to warn us about Yellowstone. It is common knowledge that waves of peril and doom from volcanoes can affect the launch systems of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
I like your out-of-phase wave theory of peril propagation. Perhaps you should write up a grant proposal. I’m sure much less worthy fields of inquiry have been funded.
Hang on a cotton-picking minute. I’ve had all these “scientists” tell me the “science is settled” and then they go and discover another 91 volcanoes!
Climate Scientists discover a 99% correlation between volcanic activity and volcanoes.
They are dormant volcanoes. Dormant means no eruption in past 10,000 years. The ice on top of the volcanoes is at least 20,000 years old. So no eruption in past 20,000 years. I bet 2 km thick of ice will not melt in 1,000 years. They won’t erupt anytime soon. The alarm is just to get more funds
They may erupt many times and the ice would still be there.
Hot lava may turn ice into steam and cause explosive eruption that cracks the ice up to the surface, or probably no eruption as weight of ice prevents the magma from rising to the crater
I should not do this but…
“Scientists have uncovered the largest volcanic region on Earth – two kilometres below the surface of the vast ice sheet that covers west Antarctica.”
“Steven Mosher August 14, 2017 at 8:30 am
They keep adjusting the number up. I don’t believe it. Show me the pictures of these so called volcano.”
Um.
They are under 2 km of snow, Steven, which sort of prevents taking pictures….
I think Steve is trying to make fun of skeptical questioning.
Of course we have pictures, via the radar which found them. Just like Magellan over Venus (superb work) but far later – are we not cart before the horse creatures through and through, y’gotta laugh.
Also good to see BAS denying warmism – about flamin’ time.
I’m sure we can build some drills powerful enough to get down to the volcanoes so we can throw some virgins in to prevent eruptions.
Of the volcanoes, I mean.
Well that’s stupid……how did they miss them…when they’ve been showing up on the gravity maps all along
http://www.ngu.no/upload/gplates/gravi-450dpi.jpg
In fact we have known for years, just maybe not how many. also that West Ant. has been cooling for c.10yrs, as recently blogged.
During the glacial periods, Iceland was under 2km or more of ice. The idea that volcanos will just push through and erupt like the pic at the top is flat wrong. All of the volcanos in Iceland that formed under the ice are flat topped like loaves. The magma melted ice horizontally less than vertically. Probably very little gas escaped into the atmosphere.
But then again, the article came from the Guardian, that well known cesspool of tabloid clickbait whores.
Very nice pic of one. They’re called tuyas. See Wikipedia reference here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuya
As it states, it’s not unusual for them to never break through the ice. The rapid cooling and abundant water can result in deposits that mimic sediments.
On another topic mentioned above: I’m not an expert on the effect on ice unloading, I’m sure it could have some effect, but I’m also sure the main cause of volcanism in Alaska is the subduction of the Pacific plate, and in Iceland the conjunction of the Atlantic spreading ridge and a mantle plume, and that volcanism would be happening regularly in those places with or without ice.
Oops, “The magma melted ice horizontally MORE than vertically. “
Forrest the dis in discover means the same as un in uncover. Try learning some Latin
If anything the presence of so many volcanos under such a vast and ancient ice cap speaks to ling term safety and stability.
“ling”=’long’?
There are several interesting geologic aspects of this discovery:
1. The evidence of volcanic activity is almost entirely under the West Antarctic ice sheet, which includes only about 5% of Antarctic ice.
2. A couple of years ago, virtually every news media in the world carried big headlines about the ‘unstoppable collapse of the entire W. Antarctic ice sheet’ and catastrophic sea level rise based on retreat of two small outlet glaciers of the ice sheet. I pointed out at the time that these two small outlet glacier were over an area of increased geothermal heat flow and not related to Antarctic warming. The new volcanic findings lend further support to this.
3. Note that the East Antarctic ice sheet (which is cooling and contains about 95% of Antarctic ice) doesn’t show the same level of volcanic activity.
4. The effect of a few subglacial eruptions in West Antarctica would melt some ice, but probably not enough to seriously affect sea level.
Which is why Iwas trying point out earlier that if they erupted that the steam created would freeze in the environment there and add to the ice surrounding the area. The aerosols and ash clouds would cause localized cooling because the jet streams tend to keep the cold localized more than travelling northward.