Cycles - Heating Up

Quote of the Day:

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we con only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

~ Joni Mitchell ~

CNN reports on a study conducted by the UK's National Oceanography Centre.

"The Atlantic Ocean's flow between the tropics and cold, northern waters appears to be weakening, which could drastically alter the weather in Europe, a newly released study shows.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, found that the Atlantic Conveyor flow slowed by about 30 percent between 1957 and 2004.

The cycle of flow, technically known as the "Atlantic meridional overturning current," plays a key role in warming northern Europe.

This conveyor belt process "brings heat northward, gives it up to the atmosphere, and we benefit in England from having the winds pick up this heat and blow ... relatively warmer air over us," said oceanographer Harry Bryden, one of the study's authors. "So that's what gives us a good climate even in wintertime in England."

Bryden said that climate models suggest that if the Atlantic Conveyor shut down, temperatures in northwest Europe could drop by 4 to 6 degrees Celsius, or about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, in 20 years.

The Atlantic Conveyor works because the cold water of the North Atlantic gets saltier and more dense, causing it to sink to the bottom of the ocean and flow south.

Warmer surface water then flows north from the tropics until it gets cold and sinks Then the process starts over.

"Overall, there was a reduction in the net northward transport of warm upper waters, and a reduction also in the net amount of southward transport of cold, deep waters," Bryden said.

Scientists have predicted that global warming could disrupt the current. Melting ice caps would add freshwater to the ocean, which would reduce seawater salinity, which in turn reduces seawater density. Less dense water would reduce the flow."

The Gulf Stream, AKA Atlantic Conveyer, is cooling off due to ice melt caused by Global Warming. In the meantime, here's a report from this past July concerning a Santa Barbara 'hot spot.'

Posted July 11, 2005 at 7:50 a.m.
Mysterious Hot Spot Sparks Fire
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) --

Scientists are puzzled by a mysterious Los Padres National Forest hot spot where 400-degree ground ignited a wildfire.

The hot spot was discovered by fire crews putting out a three-acre fire last summer in the forest's Dick Smith Wilderness.

"They saw fissures in the ground where they could feel a lot of heat coming out," Los Padres geologist Allen King said. "It was not characteristic of a normal fire."

Fire investigators went back to the canyon days later and stuck a candy thermometer into the ground. It hit the top of the scale, at 400 degrees.

Strange events on the Big Blue Marble? Maybe not. Perhaps the huge compost pile of 'human experience in the form of cycles is being reflected in phenomena occuring on the earth.

Current events Climate Atlantic Conveyer Gulf Stream Weather