Earth & Environment - Posted by Kathryn Hobgood-Tulane on Thursday, June 24, 2010 15:11 - 2 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...Could melting ice cause a cold snap?
Researchers us a hydraulically assisted Livingstone corer to collect sediment core samples from the bottom of Lake Roadside, Sibley Peninsula, in Ontario, Canada. (Credit: Tulane)
TULANE (US)—Earth was just coming out of an ice age 9,300 years ago when a cataclysmic event occurred that plunged the planet into a cold “snap” that lasted for centuries.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
Scientists have suspected that water melted from snow and ice introduced into the North Atlantic Ocean was the cause—but the source and volume were a mystery.
A new study led by Tulane University researcher Shiyong Yu pinpoints the source.
In the study, published in Science, Yu and coauthors say that a natural dam on the southeast corner of Lake Superior breached, triggering a massive flood.
By dating the age of separation of small basins from Lake Superior, Yu and his research team determined the amount, timeframe and pathway of this flood.
Rapidly—perhaps in a matter of months—Lake Superior dropped 45 meters as its waters spilled into southern Canada to the ocean, raising sea level and dropping temperatures worldwide.
“The ocean circulation might be more sensitive to freshwater perturbation than we thought before,” says Yu. “Today, we are quite concerned about global warming. The accelerated melting of the Arctic ice pack could potentially slow the ocean circulation and push the Earth into a cold snap in a similar manner.”
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2 Comments
Yeah its really hard if its cold time then you don’t have home to go to. Is there any people out there who can help with the homeless people?
There are plenty of homeless across the country and the shelters are usually full. The cold in many places are killer especially at night when the temperature dip way down. Can you suggest ways to help those souls on the street stay warm?