Slashdot Mirror
Mysterious, Ice-Buried Cold War Military Base May Be Unearthed By Climate Change (sciencemag.org)
Slashdot reader sciencehabit quotes Science magazine: It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie: a secret military operation hidden beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet. But that's exactly what transpired at Camp Century during the Cold War. In 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the subterranean city under the guise of conducting polar research -- and scientists there did drill the first ice core ever used to study climate. But deep inside the frozen tunnels, the corps also explored the feasibility of Project Iceworm, a plan to store and launch hundreds of ballistic missiles from inside the ice.
The military ultimately rejected the project, and the corps abandoned Camp Century in 1967. Engineers anticipated that the ice -- already a dozen meters thick -- would continue to accumulate in northwestern Greenland, permanently entombing what they left behind. Now, climate change has upended that assumption. New research suggests that as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that, melting could begin to release waste stored at the camp, including sewage, diesel fuel, persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, and radiological waste from the camp's nuclear generator, which was removed during decommissioning.
The military ultimately rejected the project, and the corps abandoned Camp Century in 1967. Engineers anticipated that the ice -- already a dozen meters thick -- would continue to accumulate in northwestern Greenland, permanently entombing what they left behind. Now, climate change has upended that assumption. New research suggests that as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that, melting could begin to release waste stored at the camp, including sewage, diesel fuel, persistent organic pollutants like PCBs, and radiological waste from the camp's nuclear generator, which was removed during decommissioning.
as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that, melting could begin to release waste
So in about 200 years, the people alive then will have something to worry about.
To put this into perspective, let's look back at the technology of 1816 and compare it with today's. Then we can assume at least the same level of advancement from now until 2216 (if not, then I would expect the world of that era would have bigger problems than some sewage and diesel at the North Pole) and what would seem like an issue today will be entirely manageable by then.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
No, It's The THING and it doesn't like the heat!
So 50 years ago a military base was abandoned, and in 70 years, the ice/snow will start receding, and then a 100 years after that, waste buried in the ice will be exposed... Wow, I hope we'll be able to organize a clean-up party in the next 170 years, before the waste starts to be exposed!
"New research suggests that as early as 2090, rates of ice loss at the site could exceed gains from new snowfall. And within a century after that...."
As scientist have proven unable to predict weather, much less Climate, I say we have a few years to worry about this. Currently snow and ice forming is out running the melting, EVERY YEAR, CURRENTLY, ITS GETTING BURIED DEEPER AND DEEPER. Possibly, in maybe 80 years the melting might keep up the new snow/ice formation and begin reversing. 100 years afterwards, maybe, we have an issue to deal with. Seeing as this could be cleaned up and moved with less then a years work (200 years from now when its almost naturally uncovered....why are we talking about this. Looks like more "the sky is falling" news to me.
Do yourself a favor and have a look at the youtube video in the NPR link. It was produced by the war department. It's fascinating. I especially like how the solders were handling the fuel rods in t-shirts and no protective equipment at all.
I am quite sure every single one of those poor guys died a horrible death not long after.
http://www.npr.org/sections/th...
The US also had a series of DYE radar installations on the Greenland Ice Sheet - together they made up the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line. Climate scientists drilled ice cores at those locations as well.
I used to work in an ice core climate research group. I've never been to any of the DYE stations (although I did spent parts of some summers on the Greenland ice sheet); but there's a simple reason why those ice cores were drilled at these defense installations - logistics. It's difficult and expensive to get to, set up, and maintain a camp on the ice sheet. Piggybacking on already-existing military infrastructure saves time and money.
#DeleteChrome
Newsman Walter Cronkite even went there. What was a secret was what they were up to -- which by the way they didn't explain honestly to the Danish government, which was told this was a polar research station but didn't know that the ultimate aim was to set up a missile base.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Two centuries.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Back in the Dark Ages, before smartphones and Pokemon Go, every schoolchild in the United States of America learned about the Viking settlements in Greenland.
Those settlements included dairy farms.
Those settlements were there, doing well, for 269 years.
They eventually shut down when the glacier moved south, it being really difficult to graze cattle on top of a glacier.
The Greenland ice sheet has not been there forever, people. Its progress southward can be tracked in the historical records from the Vikings. They left behind detailed notes on the development of the glacier, because it affected where the boats could make landfall.
No, but I can understand why it might seem that way to stupid simpletons who get their entire worldview from equally-stupid talking heads in the media...
I propose a "war on carbon". That approach always works. Nobody will use a substance if we ban it.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
i think if we eliminated 80% of the population, we would be in good shape. But who should we chooose? spread across the globe equally, or by some certain pattern?
"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled"
More information on this is available here.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I could watch stuff like this all day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Better known as 318230.
President W suggested a space umbrella. What do you think?
Plus the guy on the news on the rad-io said they always flip-flop and rewrite their data. Where there's smoke, there's fire, even grandpa knew that.
But who should we chooose? spread across the globe equally, or by some certain pattern?
I vote eugenics. You get to have a kid if you can program a computer.
If we use the Scientific Method (rather than anecdotes) we look at data. Here is the Danish Meteorological Institute's measurements (Greenland is administered by Denmark)
http://www.dmi.dk/en/groenland...
Of particular interest is this graph:
http://www.dmi.dk/uploads/tx_d... Here is the Arctic Ice Extent:
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/ice...
Here is the late-summer Arctic ice extent. Temperatures drop below freezing in a week from now and the Arctic ice will start accumulating again (this is from an American source):
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_i...
The coasts of Greenland are losing some ice, which may be why this base is being expose, but a much larger interior are in the interior is putting on a lot of ice/snow. The pattern of where ice is gained and lost seems to vary annually, depending on sea conditions and also changes in wind/storms.
Given that the Antarctic is putting on ice and the total ice cover of the globe is actually increasing (if you look at the measurements) then there isn't much of a reason to panic - especially as those that study solar activity have a prediction of Maunder-Minimum conditions by about 2030, where the global temperature will decrease drastically. So relax, enjoy the good weather (El Nino this year, which was wonderful) while it lasts, amigas y amigos.
Don't forget to always check the observed data, as computer climate models are not data according to the Scientific Method, they are considered "hypothesis" and observational data can falsify those hypothesis.
I'm pretty sure this is the leaked plot of the next Tomb Raider game.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Who cares about Project Iceworm, when the melting ice on the South Pole uncovers Project Koschei then the shit will really hit the fan.
The Air Force dug some tunnels during the cold war to launch missiles. What is so "mysterious" about it?
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Therefore we have no global warming to worry about even if it adds plutonium to my soup or my grandchildren's playground.
I'll be long gone by then so I don't give the furry crack of a rat's behind. Also, get off my lawn.
Might as well say "in the 22nd century". Jesus.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
as early as 2090
There seem to be two categories of climate change prediction: too soon to matter ("It's not climate, it's weather"), and too late to test ("as early as 2090").
There is another category: "long enough to be about climate rather than weather, and wrong", but we don't hear about those much.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
The pictures look like the rebel base on Hoth.
Eerily so.
I think they must have payed Lucas to FAKE this whole thing! Like they did for Kubrick with the moon landings.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
But if your calendar is susceptible to the Y2K problem...
Oh, wait, we dodged that bullet, which was supposed to have disastrous consequences too.
In this case, not just the children, children that have yet to be born, probably for a couple of centuries. Even then, that's a maybe. Sounds like more Man Mad Global Warming bullshit. As if everyone will suddenly say - oh, gee, let's start doing something about it. I'll put up those solar panels, we'll do away with gasoline, we'll do away with everything else they SAY is contributing to MMGW, including killing off about 3/4 of the human population (Leaving about 1.5 billion of us behind). A lot of people don't realize that's what they want. To me, I'm being captain obvious here. Ain't going to happen.
One thing is for sure, that site will be exposed one day. Humans may be long gone by that point, however it will happen. Earth has a way of rotating land around and shifting things, even climate. It's natural.
You are admitting that you don't bother learning the whole story. Should we really be expected to pay attention to folks like that?
Gather some evidence, write a paper, and get a Nobel prize or two. Either you don't understand what you are saying, or you are criminally lazy. Pick one.
tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz
Never really had a problem with that command, it uses gZip to uncompress the file, eXpands the file, is Verbose (usually left off for speed increase), and gives the Filename to uncompress.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?