First Evidence Of Under-Ice Volcanoes In Antarctica

An anonymous reader writes "The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica's ice sheet has been discovered by members of the British Antarctic Survey. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet began erupting some 2,000 years ago and remains active to this day. Using airborne ice-sounding radar, scientists discovered a layer of ash produced by a 'subglacial' volcano. It extends across an area larger than Wales."

Comments

Re:And the debate continues

[jackpot777]

I just find it interesting that there may be more possibilities out there than just "OMG we are killing the urf!"

Time to dispel a big myth, then.

The present concern with climate change ISN'T that it's happening (even though American commentator Rush Limbaugh wrote a book that says "Despite the hysterics of a few pseudo-scientists, there is no reason to believe in global warming", fogging the debate). It's happening. It's measured. It's science, bitches, deal with it.

The present concern is that it's happening faster than ever recorded in history.

Someone has already tried to fog the issue by stating that the Romans weren't taking meteorological measurements ...but they were, anecdotally. Diaries that stated when crops grew and what kinds of plants grew in their Empire. And the Romans weren't the only ones. The Ancient Greeks did it, the Chinese did it. Using this informaton, with a little common sense (a fir tree will thrive where an orange tree won't, for example), we know what the state of a part of the Earth was like, on a particular day.

Then there are ice cores. We have the technology to drill down into metres of ice and recover long cylinders of ice. Trapped in that ice are millions of air bubbles, showing us the make-up of the atmosphere and sometimes trapping plant spores, back before anyone was measuring these things. Tiny little time-capsules of proof. And all we have to do is study them.

Either that, or we can base our world-view on the writings of goat-herders in the desert. Personally, I'll put my money on people that know (for example) that the female body contains microscopic eggs over people writing poems on papyrus that thought the womb was just a fertile ground for a man's seed. But that's just me, call me rational if you like.