Scientists Discover 91 Volcanoes Below Antarctic Ice Sheet (theguardian.com)

Reader schwit1 writes: Scientists have uncovered the largest volcanic region on Earth -- two kilometres below the surface of the vast ice sheet that covers west Antarctica. The project, by Edinburgh University researchers, has revealed almost 100 volcanoes -- with the highest as tall as the Eiger, which stands at almost 4,000 metres in Switzerland. This is in addition to 47 already known about and eruption would melt more ice in region affected by climate change, the report added. Geologists say this huge region is likely to dwarf that of east Africa's volcanic ridge, currently rated the densest concentration of volcanoes in the world. And the activity of this range could have worrying consequences, they have warned. "If one of these volcanoes were to erupt it could further destabilise west Antarctica's ice sheets," said glacier expert Robert Bingham, one of the paper's authors. "Anything that causes the melting of ice -- which an eruption certainly would -- is likely to speed up the flow of ice into the sea.

Comments

Worry worry worry

[110010001000]

One thing I have noticed about these guys who study ice sheets is that they worry a lot. They didn't even know there were 91 volcanoes there that have been there for who knows for how long. Yet they are "worried" about it, suddenly. Needs more money for studies I guess.

Re:Worry worry worry

[Dunbal]

This is typical of climate change types. They single out Alaska and Iceland to justify their theory and then neglect to mention that Iceland is a brand new (geologically speaking) island formed through vulcanism, so actually the volcanoes pre-date galciers on iceland - and Alaska sits on the pacific ring of fire so there's no surprise about volcanic activity there in an active tectonic region. There is little to no evidence that melting glaciers affect volcanic activity. If a bunch of superheated steam and molten rock can squirt it's way up all the way from the mantle it's not the last km of ice (which is much easier to melt than rock) that will stop it.

Re:Worry worry worry

[Hylandr]

Wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Ice isn't going to stop Lava, and if you watched videos of Mt. St Helens erupting , blowing thousands of tons of mountainside into the *air* for *miles* a relatively thin sheet of ice isn't going to be a deterrent.

Applying the principle of occam's razor; Increased global geothermal activity has been melting the glaciers. Heat beats Ice.

Re:Worry worry worry

[es330td]

Heat beats Ice.

I think Jon Snow is banking on this.

Domino effect

[Errol backfiring]

From the article:

"The most volcanism that is going in the world at present is in regions that have only recently lost their glacier covering – after the end of the last ice age. These places include Iceland and Alaska. Theory suggests that this is occurring because, without ice sheets on top of them, there is a release of pressure on the regions’ volcanoes and they become more active."

Not entirely unimportant, I think.

Re:Domino effect

[110010001000]

Or it could be that the volcanoes are more active recently and thus recently lost their glacier covering. Nah! Couldn't be. Must be the opposite. We know everything about why the ice sheets are melting. Yet we didn't know that there were 91 volcanoes underneath them apparently.

Due to Global Warming

[Anonymous Coward]

Man caused the volcanoes to form under the ice by allowing cows to pass gas.

Re:Due to Global Warming

[Dunbal]

Naturally - this angers the volcano gods. They can only be appeased through sacrifice.

Re:Map with topo data showing volcanoes

[Maven0]

Sigh. After all these years of avoiding that, you finally got me, and at work no less.

Re:Map with topo data showing volcanoes

[Dunbal]

Haven't clicked on it but the /goat/ in the url address is a give-away...should have looked at the url. I do :)