Sunday 15 December 2013

Arctic Summer Sea Ice volume increased

The bounce back in the extent of sea ice in the Arctic this summer was reflected also in the volume of ice.
Data from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft suggests there were almost 9,000 cu km of ice at the end of this year's melt season. This is close to 50% more than in the corresponding period in 2012.

But scientists caution against reading too much into one year's "recovery". "Although the recovery of Arctic sea ice is certainly welcome news, it has to be considered against the backdrop of changes that have occurred over the last few decades," said Prof Andy Shepherd of University College London, UK. "It's estimated that there were around 20,000 cu km of Arctic sea ice each October in the early 1980s, and so today's minimum still ranks among the lowest of the past 30 years,"

Saturday 14 December 2013

Yellowstone Volcano even more Colossal than we knew

The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US is far larger than was previously thought, scientists report.

A study shows that the magma chamber is about 2.5 times bigger than earlier estimates suggested.The study team found the cavern stretches for more than 90km (55 miles), is up to 30km wide, and contains 200-600 cubic km of molten rock. It Reaches depths of between 2km and 15km (1 to 9 miles).

If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to blow today, the consequences would be catastrophic. Major eruptions happened 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 640,000 years ago.

The last one sent ash across the whole x6 of North America, and affected the planet’s climate.