Jump to content
Winter
Local
Radar
Snow?

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 1
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted

An interesting thought which I have looked into a little bit - one of the most likely causes appears to be extensive volcanic action with the particulates thrown into the atmosphere cooling it down and allowing the ice sheets to extend north and south towards the equator and once the parallels of around 30 degrees north and south are reached it triggers a tipping point where the albedo effect reflects more energy than what the earth is receiving and as a consequence the whole earth becomes enveloped in ice. This is the simplified version though no doubt a number of different factors came into play as well, for example the positions of the continents.

 

During this glacial period there is no weathering as such to get rid of the CO2 in the atmosphere, so this gradually builds up to a stage where the ice starts to melt with the greenhouse effect and reaching the tipping points in reverse, eventually getting back to a warm period.

 

Since it has only happened twice in a period of 4.5 billion years I don't think it will happen again anytime soon, in fact with the greenhouse gases we are going in the opposite direction.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...