In reply to Horace Heffner's message of Mon, 3 Aug 2009 21:11:31 -0800: Hi, [snip]
A shift of the current south toward Africa would necessarily also mean that the north east coast of the US would miss out, however that's unlikely to have a large effect on the passage past Florida. IOW at least some of the energy being tapped would still be available, and that's where this thread started out. If I'm not mistaken there is a sort of bottle-neck off the Florida coast that the current flows through. That is unlikely to change, though it's direction thereafter could change considerably. > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas > >"The Younger Dryas saw a rapid return to glacial conditions in the >higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere between 12,90011,500 >years before present (BP)[5] in sharp contrast to the warming of the >preceding interstadial deglaciation. The transitions each occurred >over a period of a decade or so.[6] Thermally fractionated nitrogen >and argon isotope data from Greenland ice core GISP2 indicate that >the summit of Greenland was ~15°C colder during the Younger Dryas[6] >than today. In the UK, coleopteran (fossil beetle) evidence suggests >mean annual temperature dropped to approximately 5°C,[7] and >periglacial conditions prevailed in lowland areas, while icefields >and glaciers formed in upland areas.[8] Nothing of the size, extent, >or rapidity of this period of abrupt climate change has been >experienced since.[5]" > >"There is evidence that a theorized Younger Dryas impact event, >12,900 years ago in North America could have initiated the Younger >Dryas cooling and population bottleneck or near extinction of the >Clovis people.[13]" > >The gulf stream carries tropical water right up close to and along >the US coast, all the way up through the Canadian coastline, and then >over to Greenland. If Greenland dropped ~15°C, then the coastal >areas of the US likely did too. There were populations of Clovis >People along the US coast which disappeared. Some archaeologists >subscribe to the hypothesis a meteor event caused the Younger Dryas >extinction event though. There was a Public Broadcasting System NOVA >show on this here recently. The two events could be related. A comet >impact could have caused fresh water release. Here is an interesting >paper, even though it may be amateur: > >http://webpages.charter.net/tsiolkovsky/Clovis_Comet_Crater.pdf > > > >On Aug 3, 2009, at 8:32 PM, mix...@bigpond.com wrote: > >> In reply to Horace Heffner's message of Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:28:03 >> -0800: >> Hi, >>>> Horace Heffner wrote: >>>> >>>>> It may also permanently disappear too fast to avoid the loss of >>>>> power by other means. >>>> >>>> What do you mean by that? Are you suggesting that the Gulf Stream >>>> may stop or shift locations? >>> >>> >>> Yes. Disruption of the thermohaline circulation may have already >>> happened somewhat in the past, making for cold weather year round in >>> the Northern Hemisphere. Melting of the polar ice could produce a >>> new (but probably short!) ice age, even though global temperatures >>> increase. >> >> I remember seeing a show on TV about this a few years back. I seem >> to remember >> that they suggested that the European end of the Gulf Stream would >> shift south >> to Africa, but I don't think there was much change in the US end. >> >> Regards, >> >> Robin van Spaandonk >> >> http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html >> > >Best regards, > >Horace Heffner >http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/ > > > Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
