-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">
</A> -Cui Bono?-
Ah, something does not add up here. I thought heat rises. More BS from the
scientists.
Earth man
Europe's Big Melt Underway
[Original headline: Bad news for the Alps . . . melting permafrost]
Researchers have discovered that Europe's permafrost, the frozen bedrock on
which the Alps rest, is melting.
Underground ice temperatures rose by more than a degree in the '90s,
threatening widespread devastation within the next two decades. Foundations
of cable car stations face collapse; mountain slopes, held together by
frozen soil, are likely to be swept down valleys; and rock faces will
disintegrate.
Already several recent Alpine disasters, including the avalanches that
killed more than 50 people at the Austrian resort of Galtur last year, are
being blamed on the melting of permafrost, scientists say.
"It is now clear that rises in atmospheric temperatures are producing
significant changes in permafrost levels," said geologist Charles Harris of
Cardiff University. "Global warming is changing the nature of weather
systems and this is having disproportionate effects on temperatures
underground."
Atmospheric temperatures round the world rose about 0.2 degrees Celsius last
decade, producing a spate of observations about the effects of warming,
including signs that Europe's glaciers are shrinking.
But now engineers and geologists have discovered a new, alarming effect: air
temperature increases are being magnified fivefold underground. A test bore
hole, dug in Murtel in southern Switzerland, has revealed that frozen
sub-surface soils warmed by 1.2 degrees since 1990.
We are getting earlier falls of snow which provide blankets of insulation
that keep the soil warm," said Harris. "Summers are also warmer and are
heating up the ground more."
To try to predict the worst effects, scientists backed by European Union
funds have launched a program, Permafrost and Climate in Europe (Pace), to
provide a continent-wide survey of threatened permafrost, which is
concentrated in Scandinavia, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Sierra Nevada in
Spain.
A series of bore holes is being drilled in these areas, and scientists are
developing techniques for predicting the effects of permafrost loss on
slopes and valleys.
A key, and unexpected, instrument in this work will be the centrifuge.
"When you spin things round and round very quickly, you create very powerful
gravitational fields, and when you place objects in these fields the effects
of gravity are speeded up," said another Pace researcher, civil engineer
Michael Davies of Dundee University. "We are now building model valleys, and
will put them in centrifuges to study what happens when soil is warmed up
and the permafrost, which holds the ground together, is destroyed. We will
simulate landslides and avalanches."
The aim is to find out how to spot early signs of the imminent collapse of
buildings and valleys, he said. "Racks and strains, the first evidence that
cable stations and other buildings are under threat, may be easy to spot.
This gives engineers an opportunity to put things right."
On the other hand, the recent wave of avalanches in the Alps suggests it
will be a trickier job to spot valley walls and rock faces that are about to
crumble and disintegrate.
There is no doubt that there is a real danger to human life, thanks to
permafrost warming," said Harris. "We want to minimize the destruction."
[Source originally published: January 16 2000]
http://www.farshore.force9.co.uk/n_melt.htm
We are about to go on a Journey. All Aboard
http://sites.netscape.net/gsussnzl/poleshift
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