| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
The incredible image that reveals how the Earth’s oceans plunged the planet into a catastrophic big freeze
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 12:51
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.
A new model of flood waters from the melting Laurentide Ice Sheet shows how water first flowed north-west into the Arctic, weakening deep ocean circulation and leading to the Earth’s last major cold periodThe planet’s last major cold spell 13,000 years ago was caused by a catastrophic deluge of frigid fresh water from north-west Canada into the Arctic ocean, a new study suggests.
Detailed computer simulations show meltwater from the enormous Laurentide Ice Sheet halted the sinking of very dense, saltier, colder water in the North Atlantic.
That stopped the large scale ocean circulation – the so-called thermohaline circulation – that transports heat to Europe and North America, causing the continents to dramatically freeze.
2012-11-06 12:40:38
Source:
