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Friday, March 30, 2018

Antarctica 2.0 - 5

Fig. 1a Antarctica Tidewater Glaciers
Fig. 1b WOD areas "A" through "F"
In the previous post of this series  I considered a specific scientific paper (Antarctica 2.0 - 4).

The paper I am in reference to is a paper that discusses Antarctic Tidewater Glaciers in terms of their velocity, location, and melt conditions (Recent high-resolution Antarctic ice velocity maps reveal increased mass loss in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica).
Fig. 2a
Fig. 2b

Fig. 3a
Fig. 3b
Even though Antarctica is surrounded by the Southern Ocean, that paper identified six other 'oceans' or 'seas' with six different names.

Those names and the boundaries of those areas, as well as the bounds of the Southern ocean itself, have changed over time (see e.g. this map and this map).

Anyway, the scientists who presented the paper also labeled those areas "A" through "F" in terms of the land areas of Antarctica that the areas were also associated with (Fig. 1a).

 In order to identify them in terms of WOD Zone locations, I marked them as "A" through "F" on the WOD Zone map (Fig. 1b).
Fig. 4a
Fig. 4b

Fig. 5a
Fig. 5b
In Fig. 2a through Fig. 7b their water temperatures, in terms of TEOS-10 nomenclature,  are presented.

The graphs have the name of the area they are associated with at the top of each graph, but in these graphs the zones are not listed.

The WOD Zones (in parentheses) associated with each Southern Ocean subdivision are as follows:

West Indian Ocean, area "A" (3600, 3601, 3602, 3603, 3604, 3605, 3606, 3700, 3701, 3702);

East Indian Ocean, area "B" (3607, 3608, 3609, 3610, 3611, 3612, 3613, 3614, 3615);

Ross Sea, area "C" (3616, 3617, 3716, 3717, 5615, 5616, 5617, 5715, 5716, 5717);

Amundsen Sea, area "D" (5611, 5612, 5613, 5614, 5711, 5712, 5713, 5714);

Bellingshausen Sea, area "E" (5606, 5607, 5608, 5609, 5610, 5706, 5707, 5708, 5709, 5710);

and the Weddell Sea, area "F" (5600, 5601, 5602, 5603, 5604, 5605, 5700, 5701, 5702, 5703, 5704, 5705).
Fig. 6a
Fig. 6b

Fig. 7a
Fig. 7b
But I digress a bit, because the main purpose of this post is to show that Antarctica is now being studied like never before (in terms of where the great ice sheet is calving and melting).

But more than that, the main purpose of this series is to dispel the "old Antarctica myth" which misinformed us that Antarctica (especially East Antarctica) was not melting but instead was gaining ice mass.

Basically, like tidewater glaciers everywhere, the ice sheet is melting at its "termini" in the form of what are called tidewater glaciers (Hot, Warm, & Cold Thermal Facts: Tidewater-Glaciers, 2, 3, 4).

But more than that, the glaciers are generally flowing, and sometimes accelerating, into those six areas of the Southern Ocean.

The bottom line is that calving of ice bergs is caused by the flow of the ice streams, while melting is caused by the temperature of the tide water the glaciers come in contact with.

That issue has been discussed in another Dredd Blog series in terms of the very cold water that is melting the even colder glacial ice (Hot, Warm, & Cold Thermal Facts: Tidewater-Glaciers, 2, 3, 4).

The TEOS-10 "Conservative Temperature" (CT) in the 'a' graphs is the mean average of all the zones in the particular area for those years.

The 'b' graphs display the melt point of the glacial ice when it comes in contact with the less-cold ocean water.

That is, the cold water at or above that temperature will melt the ice when contact is made.

All of the graphs display these values as representing three layers or levels of depth.

Those layers extend from the surface to the bottom of each area.

The depths of each layer are noted on the graphs.

These temperatures vary from area to area and depth to depth, as do even the in situ measurements (i.e. non-TEOS, non-Conservative-Temperatures, non-pair measurements used in the previous post @ Antarctica 2.0 - 4).

One thing I find interesting is that in Antarctica the deeper the water does not always mean it is the coldest water.

Sometimes the surface water is the coldest, but the temperatures at the three levels vary from that format from time to time.

The more critical understanding is that the frigid water melts the even colder ice.

Melt takes place at temperatures which would give us hypothermia and death if we were submerged in it for very long (the myth that only "bathtub-warm" water can melt the great glaciers has led many astray).

It has also caused researchers to miss the fact that the great ice sheets began to melt as early as a couple of decades after the Industrial Revolution began (The Warming Science Commentariat - 3; Proof of Concept , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

First Shots Fired In The Currency Wars - 4

Read my lips No New Peace
This series is about a strategic advantage in one subcategory of the oil wars (First Shots Fired In The Currency Wars, 2, 3).

I started this series about this time of year in 2009.

The dangers inherent in the struggles for the substantial sources of oil, as suicidal as they may be, continue unabated in our modern world today, but the difference today is that we have a president who asks "why can't we use nukes?" and a national "security" head who believes in war first, questions later (Five things to know about new Trump adviser John Bolton).

The danger arising is, in large part, about the "petro dollar" which is a subject that Americans pay too little attention to:
"On March 26 China will finally launch a yuan-dominated oil futures contract. Over the last decade there have been a number of “false-starts,” but this time the contract has gotten approval from China’s State Council.

With that approval, the “petroyuan” will become real and China will set out to challenge the “petrodollar” for dominance. Adam Levinson, managing partner and chief investment officer at hedge fund manager Graticule Asset Management Asia (GAMA), already warned last year that China launching a yuan-denominated oil futures contract will shock those investors who have not been paying attention.

This could be a death blow for an already weakening U.S. dollar, and the rise of the yuan as the dominant world currency."
(China Prepares Death Blow To The Dollar). The current mood with Russia and its petro dollar viewpoint are not encouraging:
"Russia pulls out of the petrodollar

In addition to cutting off natural gas supplies to Europe, Russia has also "just pulled itself out of the petrodollar," reports Zero Hedge.

The story quotes Bloomberg.com stating that Russia "may unseal its $88 billion Reserve Fund and convert some of its foreign-currency holdings into ruble."

This is further explained by Mac Slavo at SHTFplan.com who explains, "What we are seeing are the strategic moves that will eventually catalyze the next great war. And make no mistake, this is exactly what's in store for the world should these escalations continue." - Natural News
(The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 12). Things are looking war-ish, but that is not the initial takeaway:
"The important takeaway is that China has created the first unassailable and above-ground challenge to the petro-dollar oil trade. To break the world’s use of the dollar as the sole settlement currency for oil required the right contract issued by a country the U.S. can’t immediately invade and conduct a regime change operation in – like in Iraq and Libya.

Russia wins here because now there is a path for its Urals grade to become an international benchmark like WTI and Brent. And since Gazprom prefers to price its long-term gas contracts based on underlying oil prices rather than the more volatile natural gas price, this is also a win in the long run for them."
(Surging Russian-Chinese Trade Pressures Petrodollar). The aggressive Trump tariffs and building of a warmongering administration lately are additional irritants to those who are marshaling domestic and foreign economic forces against us.

"Why can't we use nukes" was once more obvious than it is now to those who have gone blind:
"The most dangerous of these has barely been reported. A very important study in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published in March 2017, reveals that the Obama nuclear-weapons-modernization program has increased “the overall killing power of existing US ballistic missile forces by a factor of roughly three—and it creates exactly what one would expect to see, if a nuclear-armed state were planning to have the capacity to fight and win a nuclear war by disarming enemies with a surprise first strike.” As the analysts point out, this new capacity undermines the strategic stability on which human survival depends. And the chilling record of near disaster and reckless behavior of leaders in past years only shows how fragile our survival is. Now this program is being carried forward under Trump. These developments, along with the threat of environmental disaster, cast a dark shadow over everything else—and are barely discussed, while attention is claimed by the performances of the showman at center stage."
(The Nation, emphasis added). This is the "DNA" of the oil wars (The Universal Smedley - 2; The Peak Of The Oil Wars, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

The previous post in this series is here.



Monday, March 26, 2018

Antarctica 2.0 - 4

Fig. 1a
Fig. 1b
Fig. 1c
This series has pointed out that the story the textbooks told, inspired no doubt by Oil-Qaeda (Climate Change Court Hearing) is not accurate.

Antarctica has been melting longer than the textbooks inform us (Antarctica 2.0, 2, 3).

 The graphics at Fig. 1a - Fig. 1c show tidewater glaciers at the termini of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (Newsweek, The Cryosphere).

The original color scheme is shown in Fig. 1b, but I added some different color schemes to give it contrast.

The State of the Cryosphere (SOTC) is that acceleration is visible, and that a small percentage of melt is a threat to civilization (The 1.14% vs. The 100%, 2, 3).

Now, the Totten Glacier in Wilkes Land is not the only game in town (Recent high-resolution Antarctic ice velocity maps reveal increased mass loss in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica).

That paper in the journal Nature does an analysis of tidewater glaciers in six areas of Antarctica (West Indian Ocean, East Indian Ocean, Ross Sea, Amundsen Sea, Bellingshausen Sea, and the Weddell Sea).

Those areas are shown in Fig. 2a.
Fig. 2a
Fig. 2b

I graphed the water temperatures of those six areas in Fig. 2b - Fig. 2g at all depths where in situ measurements have been taken.
Fig. 2c
Fig. 2d

The story that they tell is about the same for areas I covered previously in terms of the temperature of the water that is melting all these tidewater glaciers (Hot, Warm, & Cold Thermal Facts: Tidewater-Glaciers, 2, 3, 4).
Fig. 2e
Fig. 2f
Fig. 2g

The water that is melting the glaciers is just barely less cold than the ice, and less cold at deeper areas.

As I pointed out in the "Hot, Warm, & Cold Thermal Facts: Tidewater-Glaciers" series, that water is so cold it would literally kill us to be in it more than a short span of time (see Hot, Warm, & Cold Thermal Facts: Tidewater-Glaciers - 3).

Less than two percent of the ice in the Cryosphere has melted so far.

We are in for a rough ride because when we get to two or three percent melted there will be hell to pay:

The Extinction of Robust Sea Ports, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9


On The More Robust Sea Level Computation Techniques, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

On Thermal Expansion & Thermal Contraction, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

SLC Fingerprints R Us, 2

New Type of SLC Detection Model, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

The Evolution of Models, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

Proxymetry3, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Questionable "Scientific" Papers, 2, 3, 4, 5

The Ghost-Water Constant, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The Gravity of Sea Level Change, 2, 3, 4

NASA Busts The Ghost

Don't Believe In Abrupt Sea Level Change - Know About It, 2, 3

Proof of Concept, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8


Why Sea Level Rise May Be The Greatest Threat To Civilization, 2, 3, 4, 5


The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.