Giant iceberg breaks off Antarctica

A giant iceberg, the tongue of Antarctica's Mertz glacier, broke off a year ago, in February 2010. The tongue acted like a barrier for a dam where dense seawater was formed. The dense seawater sinks to the bottom and is a key driver of the currents in the ocean, for example it brings warm water to the Northern Atlantic Ocean, and the Golf Stream that is essential for people living here in Scandinavia. This event could effect the ocean circulation patterns (read more), and furthermore, the climate and weather patterns on earth.

The effect of climate change on tectonic plate activity

It is disheartening to see that when people suffer from the aftermaths of a natural disaster in one part of the world (referring to the Christchurch earthquakes), people suffer from, and are fighting for their lives because of one or a few people's greediness in another part. Nearly 100 000 people have fled from Libya into Egypt and Tunisia the last week, to escape the violence of the regime (read more).

It seems like the earthquake is a natural disaster which is not possible to control, while the Libya crisis is caused by humans. But maybe also a natural disaster like an earthquake can be, at least indirectly, caused by humans?

Some scientists say that the melting of the glaciers may induce the movement of the tectonic plates. When the ice of the glaciers melt, a tremendous amount of weight is dislocated and lifted off the crust underneath. The crust will rebound and might trigger earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

Geoscientist Allen Glazner of the University of North Carolina says in Alaska Report that

"It's unavoidable that glacial retreat will induce tectonic activity," 

This might not be the cause of the current New Zealand tectonic activity, but it's definitely worth a serious thought. 

Fjordland, New Zealand

Christchurch earthquake 2011

The world is changing. In many ways. By human causes or by natural. My thoughts go these days to New Zealand and Christchurch because of the damaging 6.3 earthquake that occurred at 12.51 on Tuesday the 22nd of February 2011, 10 km south of the city center. This earthquake is said to be an aftershock from the 4th of September earthquake of magnitude 7.1 with the epicenter 40 km southwest of Christchurch. The Pacific and the Australian Tectonic Plates interact just under the islands of New Zealand. No specific tectonic structure linked the two earthquakes, but they are said to be linked by regional tectonic plate boundary deformation. A 30 million ton ice block broke off from the Tasman Glacier, which was expected, not by a huge earthquake, but by rainfalls from the La niña.

Beautiful Canterbury.

Rio de Janeiro flooding 2011

On the other hand, the opposite side of the continent, i.e. the Rio region in Brazil, on the east coast of South America, suffered from big flooding only a few weeks ago (read more). 860 people are reported dead, and hundreds are still missing (read more). Apparently it was the heavy rainfall in combination with houses built in areas where they were not suppose to be that caused what is said to be the worst natural disaster in Brazilian history. The region received 160 mm of rain in only four hours, the same amount that is expected for the whole January (read more). The meteorological phenomena La niña can, at least to a certain extent, be blamed for the flooding. This years La niña is claimed to be the strongest ever recorded. I will talk more about La niña and it's opposite, El niño, later. The pictures below shows some of the greenery of Santa Catarina.

The aridity of the Atacama Desert

To travel is a great way to see new things, not only new things in new places, but also new things in places you have known for many years. I just got back to Sweden after a two months trip to South America. I visited the Atacama desert in the northern parts of Chile, and Santa Catarina in the southern parts of Brazil. I am overwhelmed by the differences between the places I've seen: On the west coast of South America, the driest desert on earth, and on the east coast, flooding that killed about 1000 people.

Some parts of the Atacama desert are arguably the driest places on earth. I took the photo below because I was stunned: the place looked just like Mars. Funnily enough, the place also seem to attract astrobiologists due to its high similarities to Mars (see reference).
 

What makes the Atacama Desert so dry? The area is blocked from moisture from the Andes mountains in the east and from the Chilean Coast Range in the west. The Humboldt current and the anticyclone of the Pacific also contribute to keep the Atacama Desert dry. The Humboldt current is a cold, low-salitary ocean current that flows northwest-wards along the coast, from the southern tip of Chile and up to northern Peru. The Humboldt current doesn't only contribute to the dryness of Atacama with the inversion layer it creates (the inversion layer refers to the increase of temperature with altitude), the Humbolt Current Large Marine ecosystem is one of the major upwelling systems of the world and provides the coast with amazing seafood (upwelling is a wind driven motion of dense, cool, usually nutrition rich water towards the surface)! The Atacama Desert is so rough and unfriendly, and it's amazingly beautiful in its vastness, but what impresses me most is the contrast to the east cost of South America, of which I will write next time.

Welcome to my blog, Vlov

Welcome to my blog, Vlov. Vlov means "korv" which is the Swedish word for "sausage". My son taught me that when he was two years old. Vlov has nothing to do with the things I want to write about in my blog, I just think it's a great word, and it needs to be used. This will be a blog about things that happen in our world, with focus on our nature and on our environment.