Unseen volcanoes may play role in Earth’s long-term climate

[Valin]

American Geophysical Union :

5 February 2015

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The intensity of volcanic activity at deeply submerged mid-ocean ridges waxes and wanes on a roughly 100,000-year cycle, according to a new study that might help explain poorly understood variations in Earth’s climate that occur on approximately the same timetable.

 

Cyclical variations in Earth’s tilt and orbit–occurring at 23,000-, 41,000- and 100,000-year intervals–are known to strongly influence our planet’s long-term climate. They are associated with the coming and going of ice ages that also takes place about every 100,000 years.

 

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The new findings suggest that changes in both sea level and the shape of Earth’s orbit may influence the rate of eruption at these mid-ocean ridges. These changes in seafloor volcanic activity may, in turn, feed back into climate cycles, possibly contributing to glacial cycles, the abrupt end of ice ages and the dominance of the 100,000-year climate cycle, according to the new study

 

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These findings could change the way scientists think about how to model Earth’s climate’s past behavior and could influence how they predict the planet’s future climate, Tolstoy said.

 

“We know that we can’t study these systems in isolation, that all of these different parts of our planet are linked. This study is just showing that deep-seafloor volcanism, which is sort of out of sight, out of mind, may have a long-term feedback into our whole climate system,” Tolstoy said. “If we are going to protect Earth we have to understand how the planet functions as a whole.”

[clearvision]

No way!

 

99% of some sort of science people say the climate stuff is settled.