NASA Discovers Mantle Plume That's Melting Antarctica From Below (newsweek.com)

schwit1 shares a report from Newsweek: Researchers at NASA have discovered a huge upwelling of hot rock under Marie Byrd Land, which lies between the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea, is creating vast lakes and rivers under the ice sheet. The presence of a huge mantle plume could explain why the region is so unstable today, and why it collapsed so quickly at the end of the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago. Mantle plumes are thought to be part of the plumbing systems that brings hot material up from Earth's interior. Once it gets through the mantle, it spreads out under the crust, providing magma for volcanic eruptions. The area above a plume is known as a hotspot.

[I]n a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Seroussi and colleagues looked at one of the most well studied magma plumes on Earth -- the Yellowstone hotspot. The team developed a mantle plume model to look at how much geothermal heat would be needed to explain what is seen at Marie Byrd Land. They then used the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM), which shows the physics of ice sheets, to look at the natural sources of heating and heat transport. This model enabled researchers to place "powerful constraint" on how much melt rate was allowable, meaning they could test out different scenarios of how much heat was being produced deep beneath the ice. Their findings showed that generally, the energy being generated by the mantle plume is no more than 150 milliwatts per square meter -- any more would result in too much melting. The heat generated under Yellowstone National Park, on average, is 200 milliwatts per square meter.

Comments

Mantle plumes are not controversial science

[93 Escort Wagon]

... but I’m not sure what’s going on with the idiots posting further up in this discussion.

In addition to Yellowstone, there’s the plume responsible for the Hawaiian Islands. Interestingly, as the tectonic plate shifts, the plume remains more or less in the same place below it. Currently it’s under the Big Island (obviously); you can see the direction that the plate is moving by looking at the chain of islands.

Re:Mantle plumes are not controversial science

[ShanghaiBill]

Currently it’s under the Big Island (obviously)

Actually, it is under Lo'ihi.

you can see the direction that the plate is moving by looking at the chain of islands.

Kure is the last island in the chain, and is the northernmost coral atoll in the world. Beyond that there is a chain of seamounts that have eroded below sea level. The last is more than 80 million years old, and is on the edge of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, a subduction zone near Russia. It is likely that even earlier seamounts once existed, but they have been subducted back into the mantle.

Re:It's all fun and games...

[ShanghaiBill]

What would the effect of a really strong gamma-ray burst be?

Bad. Really bad. They are the strongest electromagnetic events known to occur in the Universe. A big one can sterilize an entire galaxy. They are most likely to occur in the center of galaxies, which may explain why all known life bearing planetary systems are in the galactic fringes (disclaimer: data is limited).

Would there be time to point to the skies, cry out "Good lord! (choke!)"?

Unlikely. The initial burst can peak in 10ms.

Gamma-ray bursts

Re:It makes no difference

[Imrik]

Then the same also applies in the other direction. Other than global temperatures warming, (which is a 50/50 shot in a random environment) I have yet to hear an accurate prediction on the consequences of climate change.

Here, mod this offtopic, too, kids.

[drinkypoo]

I can afford the moderation, but you Trumpanistas only have so many mod points to spend. If I jump on that grenade now, you can't throw it at someone else who can't take the hit.

Mt Erebus plume? Or new-to-us plume?

[mysticgoat]

It has taken way too long to scroll down to this first on-topic post. But correcting the moderator system to limit the damage by paid trolls is another topic.

I have a serious question about the Antarctic mantle plume(s):

The Erebus plume under Ross Island has been documented ever since the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957 and probably earlier. So has a second plume been discovered in the same area? Or is this story about confirmation of what was already known? WTF?

Hopefully answers to this question will not get drowned by the paid trolls (and what I suspect may be paid troll fighters who keep the sewer floodgates open).