Editor:
Recent news articles citing warm ocean winds, not man’s activities, as the main cause of global warming spurred me to offer an old idea of mine – an idea I have neither the background, training or energy to pursue further.
First, we have to consider what the earth consists of: a rapidly spinning ball of molten rock covered by a thin crust (mantel) and deep oceans and prevented from flying apart by the force of gravity. Gravity also causes the rock to be drawn in a very dense ball in the center and this compression causes the rock there to reach super temperatures. As we know, heated fluids rise and fall as they are heated and cooled. And since the magnetic pole has shifted in the past from the north to the south and back, we know these fluids flow north and south as well.
Further evidence of their movements is the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland and the extension of iceflows in Antartica. Hot currents under Iceland activate the volcanos and cooler currents and the fact that the southern hemisphere is mostly water which would absorb and disperse heat more readily than the northern “crust,” which would absorb but retain it. Cooling seas would promote the extension of Antarctica.
Aside: How much does heating and cooling the oceans cause them to rise and fall?
You would expect the equator, receiving the most direct rays of the sun, would be the Earth’s driest desert but it has the most dense plant growth on earth. Deserts – Gobi, Sahara, the pampas, our southern and western plains, similar areas in Africa – all fall about equal distances from the equator.
This, I speculate, is because the earth is further around the equator than it is around the poles. As a result, the crust is thicker there and therefore insulates better.
There’s more, but this is the gist of my idea. I look forward to comments.
William C. Curtis
Sweet Home