So there has been a supervolcano under Antartica the whole time

Oh God, I'm holding it in...it hurts but it's for the good of the Earth. Ugh...

 

Just walk around with balloon pants, everytime you fart it fills up the balloon, later when you get home you can use the gas to cook your hamburger patties.

I say this in jest, but i wouldnt be surprised if in 100 years there is fart sharing, and a fart sharing app

 

You deleted part of the post.

From the discussion section of the paper:

"Currently, the WAIS may be undergoing another such wholesale retreat, as ice in the Pacific facing sector has consistently been retreating from the time of the earliest aerial and satellite observations (Rignot 2002; McMillan et al. 2014; Mouginot et al. 2014). We do not consider it likely that volcanism has played a significant role in triggering the current retreat, for which there is compelling evidence that the forcing has initiated from the margins (Turner et al. 2017), but we do propose that subglacial volcanism has the potential to influence future rates of retreat by (1) producing enhanced basal melting that could impact upon basal ice motion and (2) providing edifices that may act to pin retreat."

 

You are always going to learn more about your planet, but what you should know is that you do have ultimate control over what it is. Antarctica is fine.

 

No, the new software shortens the size of the quotes, click to expand option at the bottom of every quote that needs it

 

It also doesn't explain shit about the ice melting on the north pole. Those glaciers on Iceland are near plenty of volcanoes too, yet its clear that is not what's melting the glaciers.


If humans had the same digestion system as cows there would be sense in worrying about human farts. But yeah, wether you like to hear it or not: our beef consumption puts a ridiculous weight on our environment. Cows produce lots of methan. More than humans ever will (you may be an exception )

In regards to the car comment: yes, their pollution adds to the problem, but airplanes are far far worse in their totality.

 

Thanks for the notice.

 

West Antarctic Ice Sheet loss over the last 11,000 years seen in new study
Results shed new light on what's happening today

Date: July 5, 2017
Source: British Antarctic Survey
Summary:
Wind-driven incursions of warm water forced the retreat of glaciers in West Antarctica during the past 11,000 years, a new report explains. These new results enable researchers to better understand how environmental change may impact future sea-level rise from this climate-sensitive region.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705133034.htm

excerpts:

"Data collected over the last 20 years have shown that the present ice loss in West Antarctica results from the relatively warm water from the deep ocean flowing on to the shallow continental shelf. This warm water reaches the coastline in places, where it triggers substantial melting of the floating parts of glaciers and leads to thinning of the ice upstream."

"Co-author Dr James Smith, a marine geologist at BAS, says: "Our data also reveal a more recent history of the WAIS. A shift in the wind direction during the 1940s caused renewed upwelling of warm deep water on to the shelf. This has continued ever since and is responsible for the ice loss we are observing today and over the last few decades.""

 

An article about Kelvin waves.

Stronger winds heat up West Antarctic ice melt
Strengthening winds in the East Antarctic generate Kelvin waves that lead to increasing melting along the West Antarctic Peninsula.
Date: July 17, 2017
Source: University of New South Wales

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170717115407.htm

"It is this combination of available warm water offshore, and a transport of this warm water onto the shelf, that has seen rapid ice shelf melt along the West Antarctic sector over the past several decades," said lead researcher Dr Paul Spence.

"We always knew warm water was finding its way into this area but the precise mechanism has remained unclear. That remote winds on the opposite side of Antarctica can cause such a substantial subsurface warming is a worrying aspect of the circulation at the Antarctic margin."

The changes in the Antarctic coastal winds, particularly along East Antarctica, might themselves be related to climate change. This is because as Earth warms the strong westerly winds associated with storms over the Southern Ocean contract toward the poles, in turn changing the winds near the Antarctic continent.

 

To make it more complex (or not), times are changing due to earth's position in the Milky way...in other words the earth is very slowly turning around...very slowly that is!

 

An article that describes a possible mechanism between subglacial volcanic activity and the behavior of microbial life that could alter atmospheric CO2 level and global climate.


Volcanoes under the ice: melting Antarctic ice could fight climate change
Silvia Frisia
June 15, 2017 4.06pm EDT

Volcanoes under the ice: melting Antarctic ice could fight climate change

Excerpts:

"During the Last Glacial Maximum, a period 27,000 to 17,000 years ago when glaciers were at their greatest extent worldwide, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was lowered to 180 parts per million (ppm) relative to pre-industrial levels (280 ppm).

Today we are at 400 ppm and, if current warming trends continue, a point of no return will be reached. The global temperature system will return to the age of the dinosaurs, when there was little difference in temperature from the equator to the poles.

If we are interested in providing a habitable planet for our descendants, we need to mitigate the quantity of carbon in the atmosphere. Blooms of plankton in the Southern Ocean boosted by iron fertilisation were one important ingredient in lowering CO2 in the Last Glacial Maximum, and they could help us today."


"Then, it became plausible to hypothesise that volcanic eruptions occurred subglacially and formed a subglacial lake, whose waters ran into an interconnected system of channels, ultimately reaching the ice margin. Meltwater drained iron from pockets created where ice met bedrock, which then reached the ocean – thus inducing algal blooms.

We dated this drainage activity to a period when dust flux does not match ocean productivity. Thus, our study indicates that volcanoes in Antarctica had a role in delivering iron to the Southern Ocean, and potentially contributed to lowering CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Our research helps explain how volcanoes act on climate change. But it also uncovers more about iron fertilisation as a possible way to mitigate global warming."

 

The influence of Antarctic subglacial volcanism on the global iron cycle during the Last Glacial Maximum
Silvia Frisia
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 8:15425 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15425
Received 25 Aug 2016 | Accepted 27 Mar 2017 | Published 9 Jun 2017

Free pdf download of complete paper:

The influence of Antarctic subglacial volcanism on the global iron cycle during the Last Glacial Maximum | Nature Communications

 

My immediate question is whether global warming has reduced the pressure of ice and taken the lid off these volcanoes, that would otherwise have remained dormant.
As the ice recedes, who knows what we may find as we get nearer to the poles.
After all, For millions of years, the ice has effectively formed part of the earths crust.
This all sounds like a very dangerous game.

 

Bitchin'.

 

It was mentioned in the article posted by the OP.

It's a possible mechanism that has been mentioned by Bingham who was one of the members of the group that discovered the volcanoes.


Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet
Robin McKie
Sat 12 Aug 2017 18.11 EDT
Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2018 11.57 EST

Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet

From the article:

"However, he pointed to one alarming trend: “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.”

And this could happen in west Antarctica, where significant warming in the region caused by climate change has begun to affect its ice sheets. If they are reduced significantly, this could release pressure on the volcanoes that lie below and lead to eruptions that could further destabilise the ice sheets and enhance sea level rises that are already affecting our oceans.

“It is something we will have to watch closely,” Bingham said."

 

That was exactly my point.
My biggest fear is that the climate change skeptics will use these volcanoes in their attempts to claim that mankind is in no way involved in climate change.

 

Pretty sure that's why this thread got started in the first place...

 

There is no denying that modern civilization resembles a fish pond cycle due to what is called the "Commons Effect". Most countries assume if they don't exploit their own resources as fast as possible, someone else will do it for them. Like peasants over-exploiting their common grazing grounds until they have to be sold at auction, countries around the world are pushing the ecology to the brink of disaster, fully aware of what awaits them. So long as money and the gun do all the talking worth listening to they will seldom back down an inch and super volcanoes are the kinds of things they worry about, because facing the reality that they have collectively become their own worst enemy is unthinkable.

Only after the crap hits the fan Big Time will they even shut their mouths long enough for anyone else to get a word in edgewise, while they point fingers at everyone except themselves. For only those who accept money as the root of all evil, live to regret that decision, as money and guns become indistinguishable.