From source file 940711.evc ==* ANIMALS BRANNAN EVOLUTION EXPLAIN FOSSILS FROZEN GIWER HORN HUNT INCREASE LIFE OLD WINTER Date: 10 Jul 94 07:10:02 From: Dave Horn To: Jack Brannan Subject: Ice Caps AREA:EVOLUTION MSGID: 1:117/385.0 2e1fd70a Hello, Jack. You know, it's sorta amazing. I disappear for a while (necessity, dontcha know) and you pop in again. What's even more amazing is that you regurgitate the same old nonsense that's been falsified again and again in these echos, particularly BIOGENESIS, but here, as well. Ah, well. I've seen all the movies that are playing on the premium channels that are worth seeing. So, while I record "In The Line of Fire" for my library, I thought I might peruse your message. => Jack muttered this to Matt Giwer <= BB>> I have tried to explain how our ice caps are impossible to BB>> come by, but virtually everyone here either does not BB>> understand or wish to understand. That is why I have BB>> referred people to the experts. The two main attempts to BB>> refute my assertion are: BB>> BB>> 1) The ice caps were *obviously* formed by eons of BB>> snowfall; MG> Not in the least. It only requires more to fall in winter MG> than melts in summer. Better known as global warming. BB>> 2) The ice caps are *obviously* greater than 10,000 BB>> years old because the ice cores tell us so. JB> There are immense problems with the ice caps. There is a need JB> for tremendous evaporation to supply the neccessary snow and JB> at the same time there is a need for colder weather. Really! We need "colder weather" for snow. Imagine that! JB> The colder weather means less precipitation... Really (again)! Well, this is news to my friends who work weather at the airport where I am currently employed. Would you care to explain the whys and wherefores of this so that I can run it past them and see if you aren't talking out of school again? JB> ...and the warmer weather needed for the evaporation and JB> precipitation prevents any buildup. Lemme see if I can get this straight. The warmer weather needed for evaporation (which results in precipitation) prevents buildup...of what? Colder weather? Precipitation? You see, Jack, you've written yet another nonsensical statement. But, as you know, I'm on to you. You spew gibberish in the hopes that you will fool at least some of us into thinking that you are anything but clueless. Sadly, you fool almost no one. I think that those of us who have weathered (pun intended) some of the blizzards in Alaska, Colorado, and the midwest would take issue with how you define and explain these events. JB> The Greenland ice cap is part of the determining factor of the JB> jet stream and without it we would never get the type of weather JB> needed to maintain the ice cap. So what you are saying is that without the Greenland ice cap we would not have a Greenland ice cap? And how does the Greenland ice cap operate as "the determining factor of the jet stream?" Here we have yet another tried-and-true Brannan tactic. You make a statement as the basis for your entire premise and state it as if it were indisputable. Not only do you seem to understand the issue, but you represent that you understand it better than any of us. Don' theen so, Steempy. JB> In 93 a PBS show concerned the hunt for 5 WWII aircraft that landed on JB> the ice cap in 43, these planes were found at a depth of 250 feet JB> below the surface ice. There has been no noticeable or measured JB> increase in the height of the ice cap so we can assume that for the JB> additional 250 feet of ice deposited in these 50 years another 250 feet JB> of ice had to melt. As a fact the treasure hunters said that while they JB> were below doing salvage work they could hear "rivers" running beneath JB> them. You have brought this up at least three other times that I am aware of, and each time you were reminded of the albedo of metal and the fact that the planes were found some distance from their original locations. You were also provided with explanations for the incident that you continue to maintain is unexplained. No doubt I will find these explanations again as I peruse this message base. Just because you refuse to understand something, Jack, doesn't mean that the rest of us must not understand it, as well. Instead, what we have here is you once again commenting on a subject as expert when, in fact, you seem to understand very little about that subject. JB> Recently fossils of bisons and mammoths have been found in Greenland, JB> the mammoths in particular require a temperate climate, contrary to JB> what many think. You and I have been 'round about this, as well. I demolished your entire premise along these lines at least twice in BIOGENESIS (and, in fact, it came up so often that we began to nauseate some of our fellow correspon- dents). So you sneak it in the middle of this message and hope that two things happen. You are hoping that you can make this statement unequivocally even though you know that it has been disproven, and you hope that those of us who know better don't notice. Bad news, Jack. At least one of us noticed; and I am willing to debate you quite thoroughly on this subject. JB> The two most important characteristics of any animal JB> that lives in the present climate are sebaceous glands and erector JB> muscles, the mammoth lacks both, it could not survive. False claim. First of all, who decided that these were the "two most important characteristics of any animal that lives in the present climate?" I suspect that you did. Fortunately for most of the non-mammalian life in cold climates, you are wrong. JB> This alone says that the ice caps were created fairly quick and JB> that says the cause was catastrophic. If "this alone" indeed indicates this conclusion, then the conclusion is wrong because your premise is wrong. By the way, Jack, you're going to need to make up your mind if these animals were "quick-frozen" or not. ... A feature is a bug with seniority. ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 --- Squish v1.00 * Origin: Central Neural System (1:117/385) SEEN-BY: 117/110 385 PATH: 117/385 ==!
From source file 940717.evc ==* ANIMALS BRANNAN EARTH ELDRED EVOLUTION FOSSILS HAIR HUNT INCREASE LIFE LOUDER MOON NEAL OLD SPECIES Date: 10 Jul 94 11:20:00 From: Neal Eldred To: Jack Brannan Subject: Re: ICE CAPS AREA:EVOLUTION MSGID: 1:105/362 86DC8E68 JB>BB>> 2) The ice caps are *obviously* greater than 10,000 JB>BB>> years old because the ice cores tell us so. JB>There are immense problems with the ice caps. There is a need for JB>tremendous evaporation to supply the neccessary snow and at the same JB>time there is a need for colder weather. The colder weather means less This explanation seems a bit circular and speculative. There would be plenty of evaporation from the oceans nearer the equator, even during an ice age. JB>precipitation, and the warmer weather needed for the evaporation and JB>precipitation prevents any buildup. The Greenland ice cap is part of the JB>determining factor of the jet stream and without it we would never get JB>the type of weather needed to maintain the ice cap. And you seem to be assuming that our present global atmospheric flow patterns would remain the same during the ice ages. JB>In 93 a PBS show concerned the hunt for 5 WWII aircraft that landed on JB>the ice cap in 43, these planes were found at a depth of 250 feet below JB>the surface ice. There has been no noticeable or measured increase in JB>the height of the ice cap so we can assume that for the additional 250 Since they were hunting for the planes, it is unlikely that they had precise measurements of the height of the ice cap. So, it can't be assumed that all 250 ft of ice was new. The planes could have sunk into the snow and ice during the long summer days. JB>melt. As a fact the treasure hunters said that while they were below JB>doing salvage work they could hear "rivers" running beneath them. Sound isn't a very reliable measure of flow. When my daughter flushes upstairs, its a lot louder than the Columbia R. flowing by. "Treasure hunters" are not exactly a solid source for scientific observations. JB>Recently fossils of bisons and mammoths have been found in Greenland, Fossils don't indicate if the animals were resident year round, or only visiting during the summer. JB>the mammoths in particular require a temperate climate, contrary to what JB>many think. The two most important characteristics of any animal that JB>lives in the present climate are sebaceous glands and erector muscles, JB>the mammoth lacks both, it could not survive. This alone says that the JB>ice caps were created fairly quick and that says the cause was JB>catastrophic. Not really, but it is interesting. Where did you read this about the mammoth hair follicles? Is it the case in all mammoth species? How about mastodons? I've read that mammoths were insulated by a blubber layer, like whales and some other marine mammals, so that fur wasn't so critical. JB> MG> A true rather than cursory study shows it is quite rare JB> MG> indeed. JB>C'mon Matt, look at any picture of the moon, do all those craters say JB>"rare event?" More importantly, look at all those earth craters, eh? -Neal * QMPro 1.52 * Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards. --- WM v3.10/92-0662 * Origin: NWCS Online + 18 Nodes + 13 Gig + (503) 655-3927 + (1:105/362.0) SEEN-BY: 106/116 117/110 385 170/400 209/209 PATH: 105/362 50 3615/50 396/1 209/209 170/400 117/110 ==!
From source file sftt.faq Article 30183 of talk.origins: From: malone@alc-ohio.alc.com (Bruce Malone) Subject: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Message-ID: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> Organization: SFT - Granville, Ohio Date: Wed, 11 May 1994 12:14:21 GMT Lines: 80 D-5 SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH The Ice Age On the morning of July 15, 1942, six brand new P-38 Lightning's and two B-17 Flying Fortresses took off from a secret airfield in Greenland, heading for bombing missions in Germany. The squadron became lost in a blizzard and ran out of fuel before reaching their destination. They were forced to land on a glacier where one made a crash landing and the other seven made perfect belly landings. The crewmen were rescued nine days later, but the planes were abandoned to the relentless snows and remained on the glacier for the next half century. [Beside the following paragraph sits a drawing of a plane encased in ice with the depth of the plane labeled "240'". The bottom of the drawing reads: "ENCASED IN A GLACIER OF SOLID ICE 50 YEARS AFTER SAFELY LANDING" -CS] In 1980, Richard Taylor and Patrick Epps, two Atlanta businessmen, decided to find the airplanes. In the words of Epps, "All we'd have to do is shovel the snow off the wings, fill them with gas, crank them up, and fly them off into the sunset. Nothing to it." After twelve years of obsessive effort, extensive searching, back breaking labor, and millions of dollars spent; the persistent partners finally succeeded in locating and retrieving one of the eight airplanes. Unfortunately, it will be a while before that P-38 is "flown into the sunset" because it had to be dismantled piece-by-piece to recover it from underneath... 240 feet of solid ice! A more comprehensive discussion of this discovery can be found in the Dec. 1992 issue of Life Magazine, "The Lost Squadron," pp 60. This story is an interesting contrast to the standard interpretation of ice cores that have been drilled in the ice at the polar caps. These cores supposedly show millions of years of accumulation and multiple ice ages on our planet. Although the lost squadron was located in a different area than the ice cores, the fact that 240 feet of solid ice can accumulate in only 50 years, clearly illustrates that millions of years would not have been required for the formation of the polar ice caps during a global ice age. Both evolutionists and creationists recognize the ice age as the last major geologic event to have drastically affected our planet. Most evolutionists believe there have been dozens of ice ages, but this belief is based on secondary evidence, such as changes in oxygen concentrations in ice cores, rather than direct evidence. Most creationists believe that the earth has experienced only one great ice age which lasted only a few centuries before the ice receded to present levels. The evidence for this ice age, and for a dramatically different climate in the not too distant past, is undeniable. For instance, tropical plants and animals have been found buried in Arctic regions; great desert regions of the planet show archaeological evidence of once having supported lush vegetation; and geological features, such as the Great Lakes, were obviously formed by large sheets of ice. The creation framework of history predicts the ice age was a natural outcome of the worldwide flood. After the flood, warm subterranean water, massive volcanism, and heat generation from rapid continental land movements left the oceans considerably warmer than they are today. These warmer oceans would have exhibited greatly increased evaporation rates. Solar radiation also would have been reduced by the continued volcanism following the flood, resulting in colder, average terrestrial temperatures. The inevitable result of increased ocean water evaporation and less solar radiation reaching the earth's surface would have been massive snow storms in the northern and southern latitudes. These snow storms would have continued for many years until the oceans cooled off and the atmosphere cleared up. Thus, the great ice age is not only explained by the worldwide flood but would have been a inevitable consequence of this flood. One more interesting note: Dr. Carl Sagan is one of many prominent scientists who predicted that the smoke, generated by the hundreds of oil fires set by Saddam Hussein in 1990 could bring about another ice age. Now that all of the fires have been put out, it is obvious that these experts were wrong and that it would take a much more massive catastrophe to bring about a planetary ice age. Noah's flood would have been just such a catastrophe. Copyright (C) 1994, Bruce Malone -- Bruce Malone [malone@alc-ohio.alc.com] (614) 587-0762 NOTE: For details on responding to the author, ask stassen@alc.com. DISCLAIMER: This post does not represent the views of ALC or alc-ohio.
From source file sftt.faq Article 30219 of talk.origins: From: danwell@iastate.edu (Daniel A Ashlock) Subject: Re: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Date: 11 May 1994 19:58:17 GMT Organization: Denver Deathbeams and Stuff Lines: 118 Message-ID: <2qrdcp$mfo@news.iastate.edu> References: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: pv3439.vincent.iastate.edu Originator: danwell@pv3439.vincent.iastate.edu Why is this called the "search for truth"? It is dense with errors, poor scholarship, unsupported assumptions, and a pervasive lack of clues. In article <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com>, malone@alc-ohio.alc.com (Bruce Malone) writes: [Citation of discover article about lost P-38 lightning fighters in Greenland] > This story is an interesting contrast to the standard >interpretation of ice cores that have been drilled in the ice at the >polar caps. These cores supposedly show millions of years of >accumulation and multiple ice ages on our planet. Although the lost >squadron was located in a different area than the ice cores, the fact >that 240 feet of solid ice can accumulate in only 50 years, clearly >illustrates that millions of years would not have been required for >the formation of the polar ice caps during a global ice age. ...and a big huge piece of metal will not behave any differently than snow when put on top of a glacier? Since you have claimed that the ice on top of the planes was the result of accumulation could you please demonstrate that accumulation was the only way for ice to end up above the plane? This claim seems a bit suspicious and entirely unproven. I also recall that the greenland ice cores were not claimed, by anyone, to go back millions of years. Where did you get that figure? I also suspect that "multiple ice ages" and "millions of years" represent inconsistant timescales. Iceages come and go in tens of thousands of years. > Both evolutionists and creationists recognize the ice age as >the last major geologic event to have drastically affected our planet. >Most evolutionists believe there have been dozens of ice ages, but >this belief is based on secondary evidence, such as changes in oxygen >concentrations in ice cores, rather than direct evidence. What's wrong with indirect evidence? Especially when there are multiple lines of evidence that agree? >Most >creationists believe that the earth has experienced only one great ice >age which lasted only a few centuries before the ice receded to >present levels. The evidence for this ice age, and for a dramatically >different climate in the not too distant past, is undeniable. For >instance, tropical plants and animals have been found buried in Arctic >regions; great desert regions of the planet show archaeological >evidence of once having supported lush vegetation; and geological >features, such as the Great Lakes, were obviously formed by large >sheets of ice. You're mixing several effects here. The desertification of the Sahara, for example, was anthropogenic and in fact partly Roman, and not really connected to an ice age. You should be more specific. Also, evidence for one ice age is not evidence against multiple ice ages. Think it through. > The creation framework of history predicts the ice age was a >natural outcome of the worldwide flood. Nonsense. The creation theory relies on miracles and is hence not predictive at all. > After the flood, warm >subterranean water, massive volcanism, and heat generation from rapid >continental land movements left the oceans considerably warmer than >they are today. These warmer oceans would have exhibited greatly >increased evaporation rates. Solar radiation also would have been >reduced by the continued volcanism following the flood, resulting in >colder, average terrestrial temperatures. The inevitable result of >increased ocean water evaporation and less solar radiation reaching >the earth's surface would have been massive snow storms in the northern >and southern latitudes. These snow storms would have continued for >many years until the oceans cooled off and the atmosphere cleared up. >Thus, the great ice age is not only explained by the worldwide flood >but would have been a inevitable consequence of this flood. And, of course, we would see the signature of this event in plant seed density, a number of chemical processes in soil cores, in ice cores, etc. and we don't. This imples the creation theory is substantially incorrect about the post-flood era. Since the evidence strongly suggest there wasn't a world wide flood (for example there are still living fresh water species) that isn't very surprising. > One more interesting note: Dr. Carl Sagan is one of many >prominent scientists who predicted that the smoke, generated by the >hundreds of oil fires set by Saddam Hussein in 1990 could bring about >another ice age. Now that all of the fires have been put out, it is >obvious that these experts were wrong and that it would take a much >more massive catastrophe to bring about a planetary ice age. Noah's >flood would have been just such a catastrophe. That's _not_ what Sagan predicted. Can you in fact state his predictions or even give an original source? There is not evidence the flood happened (certianly you have produced none). Sagan's prediction of global cooling was wrong, because the amount of self-lofting and hence the atmospheric hang-time of the soot were both grossly overestimated in his model. What the heck does Sagan's model have to do with putative causes of ice ages in the past? Certianly there were no events like the Gulf War in prehistory? >Copyright (C) 1994, Bruce Malone My use of your copyrighted material is for scholarly reasons :-} I strongly suggest you exhibit some scholarship yourself. >Bruce Malone [malone@alc-ohio.alc.com] (614) 587-0762 > >NOTE: For details on responding to the author, ask stassen@alc.com. >DISCLAIMER: This post does not represent the views of ALC or alc-ohio. -- Dan Ashlock (Danwell) danwell@iastate.edu
From source file sftt.faq Article 30278 of talk.origins: From: rmg3@access1.digex.net (Robert Grumbine) Subject: Re: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Date: 12 May 1994 09:49:27 -0400 Organization: Under construction Lines: 200 Message-ID: <2qtc57$419@access1.digex.net> References: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> <2qrdcp$mfo@news.iastate.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: access1.digex.net In article <2qrdcp$mfo@news.iastate.edu>, Daniel A Ashlock wrote: > >In article <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com>, malone@alc-ohio.alc.com >(Bruce Malone) writes: > >[Citation of discover article about lost P-38 lightning fighters in Greenland] > >> This story is an interesting contrast to the standard >>interpretation of ice cores that have been drilled in the ice at the >>polar caps. These cores supposedly show millions of years of >>accumulation and multiple ice ages on our planet. Although the lost No, they don't supposedly show any such thing. At least they don't show such a thing to glaciologists (people who study ice, I'm one of them). The oldest ice in Greenland is estimated to be about 250,000 years old. The oldest dated (currently) is about 125,000 years. The oldest ice in Antarctica dated is about 160,000 years old, with the estimate for oldest at about 400,000 (bigger ice cap and lower accumulation rate). The ice _ages_ are estimated to be order 2.5 Million years for the Northern Hemisphere (Greenland), and about 25 Million years for Antarctica. This being the time since significant quantities of perennial ice formed there. Glaciologists, at least, do not believe that the ice currently in the ice sheets is anywhere near that old. >>squadron was located in a different area than the ice cores, the fact >>that 240 feet of solid ice can accumulate in only 50 years, clearly >>illustrates that millions of years would not have been required for >>the formation of the polar ice caps during a global ice age. Nor do glaciologists believe that millions of years are required. The Laurentide ice sheet (the big monster that covered all of Canada and the US down, in places, to the Ohio River to a depth of 2-3 miles) is believed by glaciologists to have reached its maximum size in 90,000 years, and half that size in about 30,000 years. But, finding the aircraft at a depth of 240 feet has little to do with the accumulation rate. The accumulation rate in Greenland (a point of great concern to glaciologists and sea level) is measured by field observations to be about 0.4 meters per year ice equivalent. No way you're putting down 1.6 meters ice equivalent per year on top of those planes. > ...and a big huge piece of metal will not behave any differently >than snow when put on top of a glacier? Since you have claimed that >the ice on top of the planes was the result of accumulation could >you please demonstrate that accumulation was the only way for ice >to end up above the plane? This claim seems a bit suspicious and >entirely unproven. And this is the mechanism. It also works, by the way, with other objects (tools, people, animals, meteors) which fall into the ice. >> Both evolutionists and creationists recognize the ice age as >>the last major geologic event to have drastically affected our planet. >>Most evolutionists believe there have been dozens of ice ages, but >>this belief is based on secondary evidence, such as changes in oxygen >>concentrations in ice cores, rather than direct evidence. > > What's wrong with indirect evidence? Especially when there are >multiple lines of evidence that agree? Oxygen isotopes in ice cores give directly 2 ice ages (so far, possibly a third or fourth could be reached by Antarctic drilling). Glacial moraines (deposits of junk shoved around by glaciers) give four (this is how ice ages were discovered a hundred years ago, by creationists) easily. Oceanic oxygen isotopes give 7 in the last 700,000 years, and every 40,000 years for 1.5-2 million years before that. Ocean core carbon isotopes match the oxygen isotopes in this, even though their chemistry is dramatically different. I believe that ocean productivity (deposition rates of critter shells) also matches the ice age cycles, but for this I can't send you to the exact paper(s). >>Most >>creationists believe that the earth has experienced only one great ice >>age which lasted only a few centuries before the ice receded to >>present levels. The evidence for this ice age, and for a dramatically >>different climate in the not too distant past, is undeniable. For >>instance, tropical plants and animals have been found buried in Arctic >>regions; great desert regions of the planet show archaeological >>evidence of once having supported lush vegetation; and geological >>features, such as the Great Lakes, were obviously formed by large >>sheets of ice. The timing for the tropical plants being in the Arctic is 60+ million years ago. All together out of range. In speaking of ice ages, though, you should remember that _now_ is the warm period. The very warmest was about 6,000 years ago, when there was more extensive vegetation even in Scandanavia. This was discovered 100+ years ago, by (again) creationists (though really here and above this is a modern term being badly misapplied to people of that time). But, the more extensive vegetation was, basically more of the same. Not tropical plants in high latitudes, but more abundant high latitude plants. >> The creation framework of history predicts the ice age was a >>natural outcome of the worldwide flood. >> >> After the flood, warm >>subterranean water, massive volcanism, and heat generation from rapid >>continental land movements left the oceans considerably warmer than >>they are today. How much volcanism? And where are the signs (flood basalts, layers of volcanic ash, ...) How much heat did this release? How rapid (and in what directions) were these continental land movements? How did this continents move without putting up new mountain ranges? If you claim that the present ones were put up by these movements, how did the mechanism work to produce them with such varied amounts of post- construction erosion? How did these movements create heat? How was this heat transferred to the atmosphere and ocean? Are the mechanisms proposed here, and the amount of heat generated, consistent with not boiling the oceans? 'Considerably warmer' than today. Please be more precise. Recall too, that oceanic creatures have little tolerance for increased temperatures. (This is part of the reason for the great drop in fisheries production associated with El Nino, and there we're only talking about 2-4 degrees C.) >> These warmer oceans would have exhibited greatly >>increased evaporation rates. Solar radiation also would have been >>reduced by the continued volcanism following the flood, resulting in >>colder, average terrestrial temperatures. The inevitable result of >>increased ocean water evaporation and less solar radiation reaching >>the earth's surface would have been massive snow storms in the northern >>and southern latitudes. These snow storms would have continued for >>many years until the oceans cooled off and the atmosphere cleared up. >>Thus, the great ice age is not only explained by the worldwide flood >>but would have been a inevitable consequence of this flood. How were these snow storms arranged so as to produce 3000+ meters of ice on Greenland, but nothing on Canada? You seem to be trying to produce the Laurentide ice sheet since the flood, and then melt it away, again, since the flood. If so, my first question does not hold. But then you have to explain how you could build up the Laurentide, _and_ melt it off, in only a few hundred years (we have observations of civilizations in the Ohio valley) -- while having the earth respond as if the growth and decay were done over tens of thousands of years (earth crust motions). This also must be explained for Europe, where there are historic records of post-glacial rebound. > And, of course, we would see the signature of this event in plant seed >density, a number of chemical processes in soil cores, in ice cores, etc. >and we don't. This imples the creation theory is substantially incorrect >about the post-flood era. Since the evidence strongly suggest there wasn't a >world wide flood (for example there are still living fresh water species) that >isn't very surprising. And these questions as well. >> One more interesting note: Dr. Carl Sagan is one of many >>prominent scientists who predicted that the smoke, generated by the >>hundreds of oil fires set by Saddam Hussein in 1990 could bring about >>another ice age. Now that all of the fires have been put out, it is >>obvious that these experts were wrong and that it would take a much >>more massive catastrophe to bring about a planetary ice age. Noah's >>flood would have been just such a catastrophe. > > That's _not_ what Sagan predicted. Can you in fact state his predictions > or even give an original source? 1) Sagan did not predict an ice age, he predicted a 'nuclear winter' effect. 2) He was the only scientist who did so. I worked for a while with one of the other authors on the TTAPS paper. This is the one that made nuclear winter a hot topic in the US, though Paul Crutzen (of Max Planck Institut for Meteorologie, Germany) had published the idea earlier. It was illuminating. Sagan was a minor contributor to this paper, and was the most extreme (by far, I gather) in interpreting the sensitivity of the climate to the 'nuclear winter' effect. So, while the paper made rather conservative statements regarding the number of weapons required to kick off a nuclear winter (order the entire arsenals of the US and USSR), Sagan was big on extrapolating to higher and higher sensitivities (two orders of magnitude down). Catastrophes, though, are poor methods to produce ice ages anyhow. The end of the Cretaceous was accompanied by catastrophic events. There is no sign of increased glaciation at that time. My apologies for working from the material that Dan quoted, rather than the original posting. I have been saving, but not reading, for now, the sft articles themselves. Rather taking a look at what other people find worth commenting on. Lazy. If this results in a significant error of context or content, please inform me, and accept my apologies. -- Bob Grumbine rmg3@access.digex.net Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences
From source file sftt.faq Article 30250 of talk.origins: From: rowe@ee.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe) Subject: Re: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Date: 12 May 1994 03:09:38 GMT Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 118 Message-ID: <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu> References: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: pender.ee.upenn.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Bruce Malone (malone@alc-ohio.alc.com) wrote: : D-5 SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH The Ice Age : On the morning of July 15, 1942, six brand new P-38 Lightning's : and two B-17 Flying Fortresses took off from a secret airfield in : Greenland, heading for bombing missions in Germany. The squadron : became lost in a blizzard and ran out of fuel before reaching their : destination. They were forced to land on a glacier where one made a : crash landing and the other seven made perfect belly landings. The : crewmen were rescued nine days later, but the planes were abandoned to : the relentless snows and remained on the glacier for the next half : century. This image of the planes happily sitting there as snow built up over them is belied by the fact that when they were found in 1988, they were about two miles from where they landed. My source for this bit of trivia is the cover story "Iced Lightning" by Karen Jensen in the Dec. 92/Jan. 93 issue of _Air and Space Smithsonian_. : In 1980, Richard Taylor and Patrick Epps, two Atlanta : businessmen, decided to find the airplanes. In the words of Epps, "All : we'd have to do is shovel the snow off the wings, fill them with gas, : crank them up, and fly them off into the sunset. Nothing to it." Jensen writes: "Our thoughts were that the tails would be sticking out of the snow," Taylor says with a grin. "We'd sweep snow off the wings and shovel them out a little bit, crank the planes up, and fly them home. Of course, it didn't happen." The name "Greenland" is a misnomer if ever there was one. Legend has it that Eric the Red, who discovered it around A.D. 900, gave it the misleading name in order to lure Norwegian and Icelandic settlers to its rocky shores. A protectorate of the Kingdom of Denmark, the island resembles an ice-filled bowl. Over the years, the massive ice cap--10,000 feet deep in places and covering almost seven-eighths of Greenland's surface--has pushed the center of the island below sea level. There the constant snows melt or are compressed into sheets of ice that move steadily outward toward the island's mountainous fringe. Taylor (and perhaps Epps) were clearly joking about their naivete at the outset of the expedition. They were quite surprised by the depth at which the planes were buried (Epps is later quoted: "That year the tail wasn't sticking out so they were ten feet under."), but their surprise clearly didn't come from them discovering that they were wrong in their carefully thought out ideas of what would happen to a plane sitting on a glacier for 50 years. I confess that I know very little about ice core dating (though I did just retrieve and re-read Matt Brinkman's contribution from Brett's archive). However, I suspect that the area where these planes from Operation Bolero crash landed wouldn't be at all suitable for dating, and no reputable scientist would suggest that they would be. Much of the ice above the planes most likely did *not* come from annual storms, but rather came from ice melted from further inland. When the pilot's landed, they were only ten miles from the southeast shore of the island. According to Matt's FAQ, the Greenland glacier could not have formed under current climatic conditions. I take that to mean that the rate of water loss from the glacier is larger than the rate of accumulation (or at least it's the same). I would suspect that the planes sank not only because of their weight causing the underlying ice to melt (which has been suggested here twice), but also because the ice is melting and flowing out to the ocean even in the absence of airplanes. : After twelve years of obsessive effort, extensive searching, back : breaking labor, and millions of dollars spent; the persistent partners : finally succeeded in locating and retrieving one of the eight : airplanes. Unfortunately, it will be a while before that P-38 is : "flown into the sunset" because it had to be dismantled piece-by-piece : to recover it from underneath... 240 feet of solid ice! Actually the planes were 264 feet beneath the surface. Despite that, at the time of Jensen's article Epps and Roy Shoffner (who was funding the restoration) expected the plane to be flying this summer at Oshkosh. Not all of the planes were so lucky. Epps and Taylor first hit one of the B-17's and discovered that it had been crushed by the ice (the P-38's are much smaller and sturdier, and the members of the expedition chose to excavate the one that seemed to have best survived the initial crash). : This story is an interesting contrast to the standard : interpretation of ice cores that have been drilled in the ice at the : polar caps. These cores supposedly show millions of years of Matt's FAQ says 160,000 years for the Vostok (Antarctic) ice core. But what's a measly order of magnitude to your innumerate friends? :-/ : accumulation and multiple ice ages on our planet. Although the lost : squadron was located in a different area than the ice cores, No, that couldn't be important could it? : the fact that 240 feet of solid ice can accumulate in only 50 years, That the depth from which the P-38 was retrieved represents the effect of accumulation only is easily disputable. In fact, I find it inconsistent with the lateral shifting of the aircraft. [snip] : The evidence for this ice age, and for a dramatically : different climate in the not too distant past, is undeniable. For : instance, tropical plants and animals have been found buried in Arctic : regions; Guess Bruce skipped the day that plate tectonics was described. : Copyright (C) 1994, Bruce Malone : -- : Bruce Malone [malone@alc-ohio.alc.com] (614) 587-0762 -- Mickey Rowe (rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu)
From source file sftt2.faq Article 30332 of talk.origins: From: rmg3@access1.digex.net (Robert Grumbine) Subject: Re: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Date: 12 May 1994 16:36:14 -0400 Organization: Under construction Lines: 31 Message-ID: <2qu3vu$ho@access1.digex.net> References: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: access1.digex.net In article <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu>, Mickey Rowe wrote: >Bruce Malone (malone@alc-ohio.alc.com) wrote: > >and no reputable scientist would suggest that they would be. Much of >the ice above the planes most likely did *not* come from annual >storms, but rather came from ice melted from further inland. When the Not ice that _melted_ further in, but that _flowed_ from inland. Ice flows under pressure. (Not fast, I grant you.) > >According to Matt's FAQ, the Greenland glacier could not have formed >under current climatic conditions. I take that to mean that the rate >of water loss from the glacier is larger than the rate of accumulation >(or at least it's the same). I'm the source on this (quoting a friend's work if you want citation). It does not mean that the present ice sheet is melting (present loss greater than present accumulation). Rather, if you were to destroy the ice sheet, the increase in melting (loss) would be much greater than any increase in accumulation (even if there were one, which is doubtful). The mechanism for increased melting would be that rather than having much-cooled air, due to elevation (try travelling up a mountain 3000 meters tall and see the difference in temperature), you would have the much warmer sea level air sitting on the would-be ice sheet's surface. -- Bob Grumbine rmg3@access.digex.net Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences
From source file sftt2.faq Article 30356 of talk.origins: From: rowe@ee.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe) Subject: Re: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Date: 12 May 1994 21:51:10 GMT Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 41 Message-ID: <2qu8ce$o5f@netnews.upenn.edu> References: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu> <2qu3vu$ho@access1.digex.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: pender.ee.upenn.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Robert Grumbine (rmg3@access1.digex.net) wrote: : In article <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu>, : Mickey Rowe wrote: : >and no reputable scientist would suggest that they would be. Much of : >the ice above the planes most likely did *not* come from annual : >storms, but rather came from ice melted from further inland. When the : Not ice that _melted_ further in, but that _flowed_ from inland. : Ice flows under pressure. (Not fast, I grant you.) Hmmmm... I'm trying hard to fathom exactly what happened to these planes. Can you help stitch this together for me--the P-38 that was retrieved was laying in a normal orientation (so far as I can tell from the pictures) when they found it. How would the ice flow over the top without rotating the plane? : >According to Matt's FAQ, the Greenland glacier could not have formed : >under current climatic conditions. I take that to mean that the rate : >of water loss from the glacier is larger than the rate of accumulation : >(or at least it's the same). : I'm the source on this (quoting a friend's work if you want citation). : It does not mean that the present ice sheet is melting (present loss : greater than present accumulation). Rather, if you were to destroy : the ice sheet, the increase in melting (loss) would be much greater than any : increase in accumulation (even if there were one, which is : doubtful). I'm trying even harder to understand this. I took Matt's statement to mean that the glacier isn't currently growing. Did I misunderstand that? Do you mean instead that the glacier would not have formed if Greenland's elevation was as low at the beginning of incipient glacier formation as it is now that the glacier's mass has pushed Greenland down? : Bob Grumbine rmg3@access.digex.net -- Mickey Rowe (rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu)
From source file sftt2.faq Article 30421 of talk.origins: From: rmg3@access1.digex.net (Robert Grumbine) Subject: Re: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Date: 13 May 1994 11:42:43 -0400 Organization: Under construction Lines: 56 Message-ID: <2r075j$6of@access1.digex.net> References: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu> <2qu3vu$ho@access1.digex.net> <2qu8ce$o5f@netnews.upenn.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: access1.digex.net In article <2qu8ce$o5f@netnews.upenn.edu>, Mickey Rowe wrote: >Robert Grumbine (rmg3@access1.digex.net) wrote: > >: In article <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu>, >: Mickey Rowe wrote: > >: Not ice that _melted_ further in, but that _flowed_ from inland. >: Ice flows under pressure. (Not fast, I grant you.) > >Hmmmm... I'm trying hard to fathom exactly what happened to these >planes. Can you help stitch this together for me--the P-38 that was >retrieved was laying in a normal orientation (so far as I can tell >from the pictures) when they found it. How would the ice flow over >the top without rotating the plane? Over the very small vertical distance of the plane, the flow is essentially constant. One thing which I don't remember from the article (I also saw one in the popular press), was whether the plane had been dismembered by the stress along the flow line. Ice sheet flow is compressive on a body imbedded in it, and usually things are stretched long and thin. >: I'm the source on this (quoting a friend's work if you want citation). >: It does not mean that the present ice sheet is melting (present loss >: greater than present accumulation). Rather, if you were to destroy >: the ice sheet, the increase in melting (loss) would be much greater than any >: increase in accumulation (even if there were one, which is >: doubtful). > >I'm trying even harder to understand this. I took Matt's statement to >mean that the glacier isn't currently growing. Did I misunderstand >that? Do you mean instead that the glacier would not have formed if >Greenland's elevation was as low at the beginning of incipient glacier >formation as it is now that the glacier's mass has pushed Greenland >down? The latter statement is correct. If there were little or no ice on Greenland, under present meteorolgical conditions, an ice sheet would not grow. The present state of balance for Greenland is uncertain. It is certain that if it is growing or shrinking, it isn't doing so rapidly. It could be doing either, so far as direct observations are concerned. Parts, definitely, are growing (getting thicker), and parts, definitely, are shrinking (thinning, edge retreating). The question is which there is more of, which involves taking a small difference (so far) of two large numbers. The expectation is that the sheet will grow under conditions expected for the next few decades (note doubly-indirect inference). -- Bob Grumbine rmg3@access.digex.net Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences
From source file sftt2.faq Article 30464 of talk.origins: From: rowe@ee.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe) Subject: Re: SftT: D-5 Age of the Earth [12/40] Date: 13 May 1994 20:51:00 GMT Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 55 Message-ID: <2r0p7k$it@netnews.upenn.edu> References: <1994May11.121421.14643@alc-ohio.alc.com> <2qs6li$cll@netnews.upenn.edu> <2qu3vu$ho@access1.digex.net> <2qu8ce$o5f@netnews.upenn.edu> <2r075j$6of@access1.digex.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: pender.ee.upenn.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Robert Grumbine (rmg3@access1.digex.net) wrote: : In article <2qu8ce$o5f@netnews.upenn.edu>, : Mickey Rowe wrote: : >How would the ice flow over the top without rotating the plane? : Over the very small vertical distance of the plane, the flow is : essentially constant. I'm not sure if I've made my question clear; I think you could answer me if you could say what direction the flow takes with respect to gravity. I'm trying to understand if the planes are/were deeper than they would have been if they were just sitting on a static block of ice. You seem to be saying that the ice flow was the cause of the lateral displacement, but was literally orthogonal to the vertical displacement. : One thing which I don't remember from the : article (I also saw one in the popular press), was whether the : plane had been dismembered by the stress along the flow line. I can answer with a fair amount of certainty that the recovered plane was not dismembered. The skin was crumpled and there was evidence of rust. The canopy was cracked, but the cockpit itself seemed to have remained dry and free of ice. Other than that the plane was in pretty good condition, I think. There are some *really* great photos in the _Air and Space_ article I quoted before, and some of them were taken when the plane was still in situ under the ice. : Ice sheet flow is compressive on a body imbedded in it, and usually : things are stretched long and thin. P-38's are fairly long and thin to begin with. As I mentioned previously, the B-17 that was located first was crushed. However, that might have been due only to the tremendous load of 264 feet of ice. I'd suspect that the flow is slow enough that moving along through such a glacier would be pretty good approximation of a quasi-static stress test. : >Do you mean instead that the glacier would not have formed if : >Greenland's elevation was as low at the beginning of incipient glacier : >formation as it is now that the glacier's mass has pushed Greenland : >down? : The latter statement is correct. If there were little or no ice on : Greenland, under present meteorolgical conditions, an ice sheet would : not grow. Thanks for clearing that up and embellishing for me. : -- : Bob Grumbine rmg3@access.digex.net -- Mickey Rowe (rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu)