Mega-flood triggered Europe's last big freeze
Global warming could plunge us into the cold again
Mark Bateman from the University of Sheffield, said a catastrophic flood was caused when an ice sheet in the U.S melted causing a huge amount of freshwater to be dumped into the Arctic Ocean.
This led to the shutting down of the Gulf Stream ocean circulation pattern that brings warmth to Europe.
A huge lake (pictured), the size of the UK, dumped fresh water into the Arctic Ocean around 13,000 years ago
'We're talking about a lake the size of the UK emptying very quickly,' Dr Bateman said.
'We don't know the exact period of time but we're talking about a catastrophic flood.'
The finding has confirmed past theories about the likely cause of a sudden cooling period called the Younger Dryas when temperatures in Europe, similar to today, quickly returned to ice age conditions. The cooling lasted for about 1,400 years.
'Our research shows that if you put a large volume of fresh water into the North Atlantic in a very short space of time, this is what happens,' Dr Bateman said.
His team's work is published in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
The Gulf Stream acts like a conveyer belt by bringing warm water from the tropics to Europe while cold salty water sinks to the depths in the far north. This 'overturning' circulation draws in yet more warm water from the south.
The last of winter sea ice in Liverpool Bay and exposed cliff sediment at the MacKenzie Delta in Arctic Canada. Scientists fear global warming could cause another massive flood leading to a big freeze
Climate scientists fear rapid global warming could trigger a sharp increase in the amount of meltwater from Greenland.
This surge in freshwater could trigger a tipping point that overwhelms the Gulf Stream, shutting it down and likely plunging Europe into another deep freeze.
Dr Bateman and his team confirmed the path of the floodwaters from Lake Agassiz that covered part of what is now Canada and the northern United States. The lake had formed in front of the ice-sheet that once covered a large part of North America.
Scientists had previously guessed that a giant flood unleashed from the lake probably caused the Younger Dryas cooling but couldn't confirm the route of the floodwaters.
A research team log sediments in a cliff exposure at Liverpool Bay, Northwest Territory, Arctic Canada. They said a massive flood caused the Gulf Stream to shut down 13,000 years ago.
Dr Bateman found that the waters flowed down the Mackenzie River, Canada's longest, rather than the Saint Lawrence Seaway that had previously seemed the most likely route.
Studying sediments from cliff sections along the river delta, he said the evidence spanned a large area at many altitudes. This could only be explained by a mega-flood from Lake Agassiz.
Dating of the sediments helped the team pin down the date of the flooding, showing that it occurred right at the start of the Younger Dryas.
Satellite observations and computer models by scientists have shown that the Greenland ice sheet is melting at an accelerating rate, dumping large amounts of ice and meltwater into the North Atlantic.
A study published in the journal Science last November said recent summers further accelerated Greenland's mass loss to the equivalent of 273 cubic kilometers of water per year in the period 2006-2008.
And see
- The day the Earth froze: An hour-long storm started a mini ice age, say scientists - http://newilluminati.blog-city.com/ the_day_the_earth_froze_an_hourlong_storm_started_a_mini_i.htm
From The Daily Mail @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1262750/Mega-flood-triggered-Europes-big-freeze--global-warming-plunge-cold-warn-scientists.html#ixzz1925bAt6k
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