Scientists find 91 volcanoes under Antarctic ice
By Paul Homewood
The largest volcanic region on Earth has been found thousands of meters below the surface of the ice sheet covering Antarctica.
A survey of the region of the West Antarctic Rift System has revealed 91 new volcanoes hidden within the ice.
The new volcanoes are on top of the 47 whose peaks are above the ice and were already known about.
The volcanoes range in height from 100m to a towering 3,850m tall.
Geologists say the range has similarities to east Africa’s volcanic ridge, which was previously thought to have the densest concentration of volcanoes in the world.
It is unclear whether the Antarctic volcanoes are active, but previous studies have suggested that during warmer periods volcanic activity does occur in the region.
If the ice thins as the climate warms it is thought volcanic activity in the area could increase.
Or, there again, volcanic activity could lead to ice melt.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
No doubt any volcanic activity will be blamed on “global warming”.
Must be a slow/no news day; this information was published back in May 2017
A team from the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, has identified 138 volcanoes, 91 of which were newly identified, under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet; The volcanoes are especially concentrated and orientated along the >3000 km central axis of the West Antarctic Rift System.
http://www.scar.org/features/1115-antarctic-volcanoes-identified
Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries, Robert G. Bingham & Andrew S. Hein, A new volcanic province: an inventory of subglacial volcanoes in West Antarctica, from Exploration of Subsurface Antarctica: Uncovering Past Changes and Modern Processes. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 461 (May 2017).
Abstract –
http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/a-new-volcanic-province-an-inventory-of-subglacial-volcanoes-in-west-antarctica(53d5003b-838f-4ba0-ac03-ffafafe5efa5).html
http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/early/2017/05/26/SP461.7
“If the ice thins as the climate warms it is thought volcanic activity in the area could increase.”
Hang-on, is this before the killer bacteria wake up, we all starve, drown and get eaten by giant killer crabs?
I’d like to know so I can make plans. What’s the point of buying all that killer crab repellent if i’m gonna get covered in lava.
Might you want to BBQ the crabs over the lava, killing the bacteria? Thus staving off the starvation. And then the rising seas will cool the lava, creating new land.
The denseness of some journos:
“If the ice thins as the climate warms it is thought volcanic activity in the area could increase.”
Slight confusion there between chicken and egg .. .. ..
Staggeringly stupid these reporters .. .. ..
Reblogged this on WeatherAction News and commented:
All Climate change’s fault 😉
Recently I attended a 10 x 2 hr. Adult Education fuse on Volcanoes, from which I concluded that Volcanic and Tectonic activity probably had a major influence upon our climate.
However it also occurred to me that as this activity being essentially random and unpredictable it would probably not feature significantly in Climate Modelling programmes and be assigned to the dustbin of Ceteris Paribus ( All things being equal).
The fact that little or no mention is ever made by the media or the proponents of AGW tends to reinforce this opinion, which of course, is mere surmise by one of very little expertise.
There are also a number of rifts and activity under the Arctic which again appear to be ignored in the statistical arguments about sea ice extent.
So too with El Nino for other reasons.
Good to see that Antarctica Volcanoes are at last getting a mention.
There is a solar connection between earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. During periods of strong solar wind there will be an earthquake somewhere. Volcanoes appear to erupt more during periods of low solar activity, which should be interesting as we approach a solar minimum.
The world and his dog seem totally unaware of solar activity and its implications ^.^
Thanks Gerry. I’d picked up the influence of the Moon’ gravitation on the course but not this solar one.
Am currently watching the katla volcano in Iceland. Now that is something really to worry about. Long overdue and currently appears to be growling a bit.!! But how would I know?
First line of report: ‘The largest volcanic region on Earth has been found thousands of meters below the surface of the ice sheet covering Antarctica.’
In other words, the thickness of the ice can be measured in kilometres. How many centuries of ‘climate warming’ would it take for that amount of ice to melt? Even a relatively tiny amount of Arctic sea ice is proving too stubborn for the predictions of climate alarmists.
And just as intriguing, how many years of -30 or lower temperatures will it take for that ice to melt from above and not below? Sometimes, it would appear the depth of knowledge by these authors could be measured in micrometers. After all even a 5 degree rise in temperature wouldn’t cause the ice to melt.
How can the people who argue that ‘The science is settled’ just discover upwards of 130 volcanoes!!!?
That’s a killer point if ever there was one. I shall remember that the next time some brain-dead numpty quotes “The science is settled” at me.
And they also found unknown volcanoes in the Mediterranean just off the coast of Italy – hardly a remote inaccessible location.
Dung,
you beat me to it. I was about to post that it’s confirmation of how little we know about our planet, yet ‘experts’ claim they know everything about climate change.
Geologists would generally hesitate to link volcanic activity with prior regional or global surface temperature. There is no reliable forecasting of volcanic events except when they are imminent, days to months away from eruption, and are showing seismic activity and the like.
Conceptually, it is not prudent to imagine short-term changes in the activity in a province to be a driver of sub surface ice melting in any other than a rare and occasional way. Activity happens rarely, at unpredictable times, has not been found to repeat in predictive cycles and is best regarded as noise in energy balance models.
However, the lack of observational data under polar ice and below the deep oceans is a reason why it is currently prudent to treat it as noise. In time, it might be possible to incorporate it in models in a useful way after a great deal more of observation. Geoff
And….the 40,000 mile volcano:
“A main question is to what extent the volcanism changes over time. The old idea was that the eruptions of oozing lava and related activity occurred at fairly steady rates. Now, studies hint at the existence of outbursts large enough to influence not only the character of the global sea but the planet’s temperature. Experts believe the activity may carry major repercussions because the oceanic ridges account for some 70 percent of the planet’s volcanic eruptions. By definition, that makes them enormous sources of heat and exotic minerals as well as such everyday gases as carbon dioxide, which all volcanoes emit.”
Broadlands,
the report itself is a steaming pile of…………
My schoolboy science reminds me that at those depths and pressures, steam can’t form. The “steaming” is, to the best of my belief, gasses released from the underwater volcano.
Who is William J. Broad?
Pedantic perhaps, but indicative of the standards of journalism in the MSM.
HotScot… You missed the point? Yes, it is the gases (like CO2) released by a globally connected underwater “volcano”. William Broad is a science writer for the New York Times. The word “steaming” was not meant to be taken literally.
Broadlands
So as a science writer, why use the term steaming when it is factually wrong, other than to dramatise a natural, continually occurring event?
And whilst all the calculations on CO2 emissions are made, and the relationship between AGW and CO2 are cobbled together, 130 previously unknown volcano’s are found.
So how does that affect the man made CO2 balance if these things are belching out gasses we couldn’t previously account for, because we didn’t know they existed?
And how many more are there that we don’t know about?
Supercritical water / steam is found at volcanic sources under deep oceans and various species live at water temperatures and pressures believed to be impossible.
There are many active underwater volcanoes: fascinating publications by professor Wyss Yim (Hong Kong Uni) cover these well. Also, the earth’s crust is very thin in some tectonic areas and heat is conducted into the oceans at such points.
There are at least 55,000 vents passing hot gases into the deep sea, thence to the atmosphere, and New Zealand discovered 40 sub-sea volcanoes in 10 years. The models assume that these are in some sort of equilibrium like clouds and solar activity and all the other known-unknowns. “Proven science” they cry….
Sadly the Big Brother Corp is winning the brainwashing battle. However, on the plus side, most people now worry more about meteor strikes and North Korea / Trump than the unknown world or global warming.
Climate Scientists have found a 99% correlation between volcanic activity and volcanoes.
A number of geologists (not “climate” scientists) have already concluded that volcanic activity in the Arctic is a main contributor to ocean warming. They cite geothermal’ venting along the 2,000 mile long Gakkel Ridge, among other areas, as significant contributors.
Saying that ocean warming contributes to volcanic activity is like saying that volcanoes are more likely to erupt during heat waves…but maybe climate scientists have concluded that also.