Dave Wrote:One current theory is that the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa are volcanically dormant, but should they awaken and the island shift it could create a self propogating wave all the way across the Atlantic that will slam into the East Coast of the US. This could happen at any time. Apparently.
And that would have been a decent premise.
"Have you ever seen the air so clear?" What a load.
My problem with the movie wasn't all the devastation or even the way it all happened (The FX were terrific. Blow some more shit up!)-- It was that the producers of this movie really seemed to be trying to convince people that the scenario was possible (at that speed) and that it would be mankind's fault if/when it all happened.
The dialogue actually had me laughing out loud at all the wrong moments. I was really let down. When I stared seeing posters for
"The Day After Tomorrow" I just could not wait to see it.
And another thing, would the people of Third World countries really open their arms and welcome all the other people of the world that are fleeing, flooding into their countries? Who cares if we forgave their debt? And wouldn't everyone starve? They acted like
that was a happy ending. And best of all, the Dick Chaney look-alike VP in the movie had finally seen the error of his ways. Wow.
Anyway, here's a better source of the Polar Ice Caps melting and causing all that mess: (What if there were a bunch of these?)
Underwater volcano discovered off Antarctica
Friday, May 21, 2004 Posted: 10:14 AM EDT (1414 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A previously unknown underwater volcano has been discovered off the coast of Antarctica, the National Science Foundation said Thursday.
The finding helps explain mariners' historical reports of discolored water in the area, the agency said. Material from underwater volcanoes is known to cause discoloration in water over them.
The presence of a volcano was first suggested in sonar studies during a research cruise in January, but scientists were unable to return to the stormy waters of the region until April.
The foundation said the research vessel Lawrence M. Gould was returning from a study of a collapsed ice shelf when it passed over the volcano.
The research team led by Eugene Domack of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, used a bottom-scanning video recorder, rock dredges and temperature probes to survey the sides and crest of the submarine peak.
While large areas were colonized by submarine life, none was found on dark rock around the volcano itself, indicating that lava had flowed fairly recently.
In addition, dredges recovered abundant fresh basalt, a volcanic rock. It normally would be rapidly acted upon and transformed by seawater.
Highly sensitive temperature probes moving continuously across the bottom of the volcano showed signs of geothermal heating of seawater, according to the agency.
Domack said the volcano stands 2,300 feet above the seafloor and extends to within roughly 900 feet of the ocean surface.
The volcano is in an area known as Antarctic Sound, at the northernmost tip of Antarctica. There is no previous scientific record of active volcanoes in the region where the new peak was discovered. The volcano is located on the continental shelf, in the vicinity of a deep trough carved out by glaciers passing across the seafloor.
In addition to Hamilton College the research team included members from Colgate University, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, Montclair State University in New Jersey, Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and Queens University in Canada.
The foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research in science and engineering. It manages the United States' Antarctic research program.
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Or this:
A volcano discovered six years ago by researchers Blankenship and Bell under Antarctica poses questions about a potential climatic catastrophe.^The researchers claim that the volcano is still active, erupting occasionally and growing.^A circular depression on the surface of the ice sheet has ice flowing into it and is used to provide a portrait of the heat source.^The volcano is on a critical transition zone within West Antarctica with fast flowing ice streams directly downhill.^Work by Blankenship shows that a soft layer of water-logged sediments called till provide the lubricating layer on the underside of the ice streams.^Volcanos may provide the source of this till.^The ice streams buffer the thick interior ice from the ocean and no one know what will happen if the ice streams continue to shorten.^These researchers believe their results indicate that the stability of West Antarctica ultimately depends less on the current climate than on the location of heat and sediments under the ice and the legacy of past climatic changes.
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Or this:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory..../story.htm
RIK