Hilmar Gudmundsson
"Huh,you're saying it's always done that ?, but I'm an Expert Climate Scientist® "Scientists in Antarctica " have found striking evidence for the influence of the Moon on large-scale terrestrial phenomena. The Moon, it now appears, influences the movement of ice flowing off the continent’s glaciers.
In Antarctica streams of ice move large amounts of ice down from the centre of glaciers towards the ocean, dumping the ice far out into the sea, sometimes creating icebergs.
Some ice streams move rapidly, up to 1km (0.6 miles) per year; others are slow. The Rut-ford ice stream is a river of ice larger than the Netherlands, which drains the West Antarctic ice sheet. Scientists recently discovered a bizarre behaviour in this ice stream — it speeds up and slows down by as much as 20 per cent every two weeks.
This regular rhythm coincides with the fortnightly tidal cycle of the sea, when the gravitational pulls of the Moon and the Sun are either working together in large spring tides, or working against each other, in small neap tides.
The British Antarctic Survey glaciologist, Hilmar Gudmundsson, was amazed at these findings. “We’ve never seen anything like this before. The discovery that the spring-neap tidal cycle exerts such a strong influence on an ice stream tens of kilometres away is a total surprise. For such a large mass of ice to respond to ocean tides like this illustrates how sensitively the Antarctic ice sheet reacts to environmental changes.”"
I read this at The Englishman's Castle today and it got me thinking, so I posted a reply on his site, that got me thinking some more. I take notice of tides because I spend a lot of time fishing. Any fule kno that the gravity and tidal pull exerted by the moon and sun moves water to make the tides. It stands to reason that this force will act on everything on earth and the earth itself not just water; rock will move not much, loose sort of stuff will move a bit more and slippy stuff that is already sliding down a slope under the force of earth's gravity will be affected a bit more still.
I did a bit of googling and found this site from which I get the following;
"Since water is more flexible than rock, we see the tidal effect strongly in the oceans of the Earth, but barely at all in the ground. However, the rock does bend, by as much as 30 centimeters (about a foot) up and down twice a day!"
This so-called expert was amazed at these findings, bugger me where do they get them from ? Any fule using google and a modicum of common sense can be in a position of not being amazed.
I think he will find the ice stream is influenced from far further than tens of kilometres away,the moon and sun are far, far, further away as any fule kno.
If the silly bugger thinks that it is the sea water tens of kilometres away acting on the glacier rather than gravitational forces of the moon and sun then we kno he is a bigger fule than most Experts®
This statement...."For such a large mass of ice to respond to ocean tides like this illustrates how sensitively the Antarctic ice sheet reacts to environmental changes"... is total and utter bollocks, bad science and blatant scaremongering. The Antactic Ice Sheet is behaving exactly as it has always acted, under the influence of the earth's gravity and the tidal pull of the moon and sun..... It is not reacting to environmental changes, this is a complete non sequitur, total bollocks and rank bad science.
I think I will end as I ended my last piece on Global Warming;
Total bollocks Sir, I don't fucking believe you. You, I think, are a silly cunt more suited to be a politician than a scientist.UPDATE this comment has been left;
spagnole said..."Haddock, whether or not you believe in global warming is irrelevant. Nature doesn't give two hoots about you -- or the rest of mankind!
It's too late to do much about it now, anyway, so whatever anyone says is also irrelevant. Luckily I have no offspring, or I might be a bit worried about the future.