Melting Glaciers Are Wreaking Havoc on Earth's Crust ..great article !

What a great article about Earth's ever changing crust, rotation, land masses sinking (and rising) and even pole shift. Without Global warming or in conjunction with, (take the side you are comfortable with because this article is not about global warming) there will be coastal flooding in some areas while in other areas your beach front property will actually expand to a receding water's edge..

Sea levels are dropping, earthquakes and volcanoes are waking up, and even the earth's axis is moving—all because of melting ice.

You've no doubt by now been inundated with the threat of global sea level rise. At the current estimated rate of one-tenth of an inch each year, sea level rise could cause large swaths of cities like New York, Galveston and Norfolk to disappear underwater in the next 20 years. But a new study out in the Journal of Geophysical Research shows that in places like Juneau, Alaska, the opposite is happening: sea levels are dropping about half an inch every year.

How could this be? The answer lies in a phenomenon of melting glaciers and seesawing weight across the earth called “glacial isostatic adjustment.” You may not know it, but the Last Ice Age is still quietly transforming the Earth’s surface and affecting everything from the length of our days to the topography of our countries.

During the glacier heyday 19,000 years ago, known as the Last Glacial Maximum, the Earth groaned under the weight of heavy ice sheets thousands of feet thick, with names that defy pronunciation: the Laurentide Ice Sheet, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, and many more. These enormous hunks of frozen water pressed down on the Earth’s surface, displacing crustal rock and causing malleable mantle substance underneath to deform and flow out, changing the Earth’s shape—the same way your bottom makes a depression on a couch if you sit on it long enough. Some estimates suggest that an ice sheet about half a mile thick could cause a depression 900 feet deep—about the of an 83-story building.

OK so the ground we walk on is more elastic than I suppose many might have supposed !

Actually the analogy of sitting on a decently made and cushioned sofa/couch is quite appropriate IMO. Remove Butt and sofa springs back. Remove a thousand feet of packed ice the crust springs back but rather slowly; like a cheap couch..

At the same time, places that were once forebulges are now sinking, since they are no longer being pushed up by nearby ice sheets. For example, as Scotland rebounds, England sinks approximately seven-tenths of an inch into the North Sea each year. Similarly, as Canada rebounds about four inches each decade, the eastern coast of the U.S. sinks at a rate of approximately three-tenths of an inch each year—more than half the rate of current global sea level rise. A study published in 2015 predicted that Washington, D.C. would drop by six or more inches in the next century due to forebulge collapse, which might put the nation’s monuments and military installations at risk.

Just some more information about our ever changing world. See added link for more details....
www.smithsonianmag.com...

a reply to: 727Sky

If butt depressions on cheap couches is proven, that must mean the whole of Canada, once covered in thick ice sheets is 900 feet below the rest of the continent?

a reply to: 727Sky

Yea for the most part we think in small terms and remove ourselves from the distant past .With such movement going on ,I guess for the most part ,. it would seem to be a very hard thing to measure . 2000 years ago Emphasis (in the bible) was near the water .Last I heard its 4 to 6 miles away from it now . You might find this tid bit a interesting read

If sea level is rising, how did Earth gain 58,000 km2 of net land surface area, including 13,565 km2 of net coastal land surface area? I’m sure that there is an obvious logical answer. The Cretaceous sea level was about 50 m higher than today and land comprised only 23-26% of Earth’s surface area (vs 29% today).

wattsupwiththat.com...

Around 40 years ago, I was talking to one of my professors, who had learned 50 years before that, that the great plains of America were rubbed flat (quite suddenly) by a huge glacier. The guy was fascinating to talk to because he was anything other than mainstream.

One could also imagine that all of these volcanoes weather underwater or on the surface must displace quite a bit . Also you got the extraction of oil which is no small amount . Making the calculations for all of that plus the water we extract would be huge .

It's also called, 'post glacial rebound' I've talked about in other posts in reference to Eire and the UK where the Southern tips of both countries are dipping down, while the northern areas are rising up.

Studies have been ongoing for some time now, with coastal areas in Connemara having been submerged.

edepositireland.ie...

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Add, or maybe better yet, subtract the oil weight that yet -wasn't- created because the tree debris (how many tons a year, year after year after thousands) had yet to grow, plus, the dust the we run into space while spinning about- well, it is quite a feat.

I know places in St. Paul where every third rock picked up has a Salt Ocean Fossil in it... And the funny thing is that it is right downtown, but, across the river. We had to be under the ocean. The original name for St. Paul Minnesota was once White Cliff, because there is a big White Cliff (along the Mississippi Valley) where the Gypsum from all the Crustaceans is 100's of feet thick and shows on a white face. We were deep under the ocean...

Fascinating when you think about it all.

a reply to: Newt22

NASA Confirms Oil in other planets
journal-neo.org... "The Abiotic Theory. The abiotic (a.k.a. abiogenic) theory requires nothing from earth's surface or the living organisms residing there. All essential materials can be found within the earth. The minerals and other raw materials involved are found within the planet and the supply of crude oil may be hardly tapped." I am not completely convinced about crude oil being from dead and dying animals while I believe that coal is .

And when mother nature throws a curve ball into the equation then the math would have to be adjusted I would think .

From the NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER and the “how long until global warming is blamed” department. A 60-year pattern in the stratosphere changes up This disruption to the wind pattern – called the “quasi-biennial oscillation” – did not have any immediate impact on weather or climate as we experience it on Earth’s surface. But it does raise interesting questions for the NASA scientists who observed it: If a pattern holds for six decades and then suddenly changes, what caused that to happen? Will it happen again? What effects might it have? “The quasi-biennial oscillation is the stratosphere’s Old Faithful,” said Paul Newman, Chief Scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author on a new paper about the event published online in Geophysical Research Letters. “If Old Faithful stopped for a day, you’d begin to wonder about what was happening under the ground.” Winds in the tropical stratosphere, an atmospheric layer that extends from about 10 to 30 miles above Earth’s surface, circulate the planet in alternating easterly and westerly directions over roughly a two-year period. Westerly winds develop at the top of the stratosphere, and gradually descend to the bottom, about 10 miles above the surface while at the same time being replaced by a layer of easterly winds above them. In turn, the easterlies descend and are replaced by westerlies. This pattern repeats every 28 months. In the 1960s scientists coined it the “quasi-biennial oscillation.” The record of these measurements, made by weather balloons released in the tropics at various points around the globe, dates to 1953. The pattern never changed – until late 2015. As the year came to a close, winds from the west neared the end of their typical descent. The regular pattern held that weaker easterly winds would soon replace them. But then the westerlies appeared to move upwards and block the downward movement of the easterlies. This new pattern held for nearly half a year, and by July 2016 the old regime seemed to resume. “It’s really interesting when nature throws us a curveball,” Newman said.

wattsupwiththat.com...

That's really interesting.. who can foresee something like that?

a reply to: the2ofusr1

NASA Confirms Oil in other planets

False.
Methane is not oil. What an idiotic article that is.

a reply to: Phage

Methane is in the same family as what we call "crude oil." Crude is just a mixture of hydrocarbons, of which methane is the simplest.

C(n)H(2n+2) = CH4 where n=1

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

I know what methane is.
It is not oil. NASA did not confirm oil on other planets. The claim is a lie.

Also quite off topic.

a reply to: Phage

It is a hydrocarbon with a very low boiling point. Oil is made of hydrocarbons.

The fact that CH4 is present in such quantities indicates life is not required for production of all hydrocarbons. This indictates life may not be required for heavier hydrocarbons, which at liquid methane temperatures would be solids.

That is the topic.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Oil is made of hydrocarbons.

So am I. I am not oil. So are plants. Plants are not oil. Yet.

The fact that CH4 is present in such quantities indicates life is not required for production of all hydrocarbons. This indictates life may not be required for heavier hydrocarbons, which at liquid methane temperatures would be solids.

Seems to be a non-sequitor. Never mind that NASA did not confirm oil on other planets.

That is the topic.

I thought the topic was isostatic rebound.

a reply to: Phage

You are (partially) composed of oils... so are plants.

But I stand corrected; you are correct. This sub-topic has indeed strayed from the main topic. My apologies.

TheRedneck

Your right, it is about Isostatic Rebound. I am sorry for driving it off topic, I only brought up organics as a weight mechanism, another wrinkle in a seemingly boundless topic... how the earth gains tectonic weight - so to speak.

Saw an interesting observation the other day. The western side of the antarctic continent has been loosing ice into the sea at an increasing rate. This is a nice source for all the media outlets requiring video of our receeding icecaps. What's realy interesting though is the apparent colossal amount of build up of ice inland and on the eastern side. Its as if the Antarctic cap is migrating toward Australia and leaving behind the land underneath. Thats gonna be some serious bumcrease given there are areas several miles thick [about 3 miles or 5000m]

a reply to: kountzero

When we think of the wobble of the earth and think back 12k when there were the giant northern ice caps ,I wonder if the southern caps were also much bigger .Is it a system that moves back and forth between the north and the south .Lots of history in ice . This vid speaks to some of the size and power .It always amazes me

Everyone who took the time to reply thank you. It is rather disappointing to me that the thread did not receive more interested replies for IMO this really is a big deal.... especially if Washington D.C. is submerged in the future !
I can hear the bleating of the environmentalist claiming it is mankind's fault .... !