Tag Archives: Pacific Ocean

The Dud PDO Index of Climate Sensitivity

Posted on May 12, 2014 by gymnosperm

Climate sensitivity is the response of the climate system to a given increment of CO2. It is often expressed as the response to a “doubling” of this gas from a pre industrial level. Estimates of climate sensitivity are all over … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, climate sensitivity, Dud PDO, Global Warming, PDO | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Hawaiian/Emperor Seamounts and How Island Arcs are Formed

Posted on September 5, 2013 by gymnosperm

Ever wonder why offshore island arcs should form at random spots in the oceans? No? Don’t worry, its a far fig newton. We offer here the suggestion that the locations are not random, that island arc trenches and probably spreading ridges and … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Geology, Gravity Anomalies, Seamount Chains as Incipient Island Arcs | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Dim Sum, Microbial Dark Matter and Wine Dark Seas

Posted on July 27, 2013 by gymnosperm

The oceans are a microbial soup I like to call the Dim Sum. It is an appropriate pun because it is both dim in the sense we don’t understand it, and  a dim sum in that we  cannot describe it mathematically. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Geography, Microbial Dark Matter, Oceanography | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Charybdis and the Oldest Ocean Floor on Earth

Posted on January 6, 2013 by gymnosperm

A few years back there was a much ballyhooed drilling effort to find some 175 million year old sea floor touted as the “oldest”. Incorrecto qui mo sabe. That particular ocean floor is interesting in its own right (see our … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Geography, Geology, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Too Much on my Plate

Posted on March 13, 2012 by gymnosperm

I’ve been getting annoyed with the grade school conception of “plate” tectonics where everyone is identifying plates and their relative motions and saying stuff like the Japan Earthquake of 2011 was caused by the Pacific Plate sliding under Japan. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Geology, Oceanography | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Viejo indeed! When the big dog stirrs…

Posted on January 29, 2012 by gymnosperm

El Viejo, (the old one) is an alternative name developing for the La Niña phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, ENSO. Much has been written on the impact of ENSO on global temperature, and many are coming to understand the importance of … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Geography, Global Warming, Oceanography | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment