Antarctic scientists head to biological hotspot studying climate change in Southern Ocean - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) A team of 44 scientists and support staff is preparing to depart Hobart on Monday for a two-month mission on the Antarctic Division's Aurora Australis, to study the impact of climate change in the Southern Ocean. Researchers discover volcanic activity is changing Antarctica's geology - Climate Dispatch These factors are indicative that geological forces play a significant, if not primary, role in driving many climate and climate-related events in the greater Antarctica area such as: variations in ocean temperature and chemistry, variations in sea ice distribution, basal glacial melting, generation of a huge interconnected sub-glacial freshwater system, and as per the original research objective...alteration of the supposedly delicate Kerguelen Plateau ecosystem.
The first post is from the same fellow who has repeatedly reminded us that Antarctic floating sea ice has recently increased. Including in the area of Kerguelen, as it turns out. In this post, the Kerguelen Plateau area is recognized as a source of geothermal heat. So far, so good. A problem seems to arise when we suppose that this Kerguelen warm water is unable to melt local ocean-surface ice, but it is able to move 600 miles (or more) to the Antarctic continent and melt grounded ice there. Nonetheless it would be good to learn more about Kerguelen Plateau. Lots of krill in those waters.
If the current cruise turns up and publishes new heat-flow numbers for the region, it will be most welcome. The best prior work I could find is: Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth January 2008; VOLUME 113 (B1) http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JB005001 Heat flow from the Southeast Indian Ridge Flanks between 80 and 140°E: data review and analysis L. Géli, T. C. Lee, J.R. Cochran, J. Francheteau, D. Abbott, C. Labails & D. Appriou They found low heat fluxes (from 2 to 50 mW m−2), from their own cruise and reviewing earlier data. Of course they may have missed something, and as science is self-correcting, bring it on. Meanwhile mojo might post an image of maximum Antarctic sea-ice extent with the Kerguelen Plateau area highlighted. It is non-melty, and his audience deserves to know about that.
This thread shows exactly the strong need for mojo to 'scout the perimeter' for us, and I hope that never ends. Climate Change Dispatch - Home was not on my list of sites to visit. With >100 journals that need looking at it still isn't. So I continue to rely upon mojo's help. Without mojo here I'd never have looked at implications of isotopes in ice with respect to climate, or many other things. Enough praise. Here I attach max. Ant. sea-ice 2014, which was quite large. If mojo chooses not to show where 'Kerguelen hot spot 'is in this, I'll do so later.
