"Marine Heat Wave" underestimated source of climate chaos

JGeropoulas

The Living Force
First seabirds started falling out of the sky, washing up on beaches from California to Canada.

Then emaciated and dehydrated sea lion pups began showing up, stranded and on the brink of death.

A surge in dead whales was reported in the same region, and that was followed by the largest toxic algal bloom in history seen along the Californian coast. Mixed among all that there were population booms of several marine species that normally aren’t seen surging in the same year.

Plague, famine, pestilence and death was sweeping the northern Pacific Ocean between 2014 and 2015.

This chaos was caused by a single massive heatwave, unlike anything ever seen before. But it was not the sort of heatwave we are used to thinking about, where the air gets thick with warmth. This occurred in the ocean, where the effects are normally hidden from view.

Nicknamed “the blob”, it was arguably the biggest marine heatwave ever seen. It may have been the worst but wide-scale disruption from marine heatwaves is increasingly being seen all around the globe, with regions such as Australia seemingly being hit with more than their fair share.

It might seem strange given their huge impact but the concept of a marine heatwave is new to science. The term was only coined in 2011. Since then a growing body of work documenting their cause and impact has developed.

According to Emanuele Di Lorenzo from the Georgia Institute of Technology, that emerging field of study could not only reveal a hitherto underestimated source of climate-related chaos, it could change our very understanding of the climate.
article continued here:
_http://www.wired.com/2016/08/marine-heatwaves-spawning-unprecedented-climate-chaos/
 
JGeropoulas said:
First seabirds started falling out of the sky, washing up on beaches from California to Canada.

Then emaciated and dehydrated sea lion pups began showing up, stranded and on the brink of death.

A surge in dead whales was reported in the same region, and that was followed by the largest toxic algal bloom in history seen along the Californian coast. Mixed among all that there were population booms of several marine species that normally aren’t seen surging in the same year.

Plague, famine, pestilence and death was sweeping the northern Pacific Ocean between 2014 and 2015.

This chaos was caused by a single massive heatwave, unlike anything ever seen before. But it was not the sort of heatwave we are used to thinking about, where the air gets thick with warmth. This occurred in the ocean, where the effects are normally hidden from view.

Nicknamed “the blob”, it was arguably the biggest marine heatwave ever seen. It may have been the worst but wide-scale disruption from marine heatwaves is increasingly being seen all around the globe, with regions such as Australia seemingly being hit with more than their fair share.

It might seem strange given their huge impact but the concept of a marine heatwave is new to science. The term was only coined in 2011. Since then a growing body of work documenting their cause and impact has developed.

According to Emanuele Di Lorenzo from the Georgia Institute of Technology, that emerging field of study could not only reveal a hitherto underestimated source of climate-related chaos, it could change our very understanding of the climate.
article continued here:
_http://www.wired.com/2016/08/marine-heatwaves-spawning-unprecedented-climate-chaos/

Very interesting considering we've been talking about undersea heating for years now and Cs suggested a LONG time ago!
 
JGeropoulas said:
First seabirds started falling out of the sky, washing up on beaches from California to Canada.

Then emaciated and dehydrated sea lion pups began showing up, stranded and on the brink of death.

A surge in dead whales was reported in the same region, and that was followed by the largest toxic algal bloom in history seen along the Californian coast. Mixed among all that there were population booms of several marine species that normally aren’t seen surging in the same year.

Plague, famine, pestilence and death was sweeping the northern Pacific Ocean between 2014 and 2015.

This chaos was caused by a single massive heatwave, unlike anything ever seen before. But it was not the sort of heatwave we are used to thinking about, where the air gets thick with warmth. This occurred in the ocean, where the effects are normally hidden from view.

Nicknamed “the blob”, it was arguably the biggest marine heatwave ever seen. It may have been the worst but wide-scale disruption from marine heatwaves is increasingly being seen all around the globe, with regions such as Australia seemingly being hit with more than their fair share.

It might seem strange given their huge impact but the concept of a marine heatwave is new to science. The term was only coined in 2011. Since then a growing body of work documenting their cause and impact has developed.

According to Emanuele Di Lorenzo from the Georgia Institute of Technology, that emerging field of study could not only reveal a hitherto underestimated source of climate-related chaos, it could change our very understanding of the climate.
article continued here:
_http://www.wired.com/2016/08/marine-heatwaves-spawning-unprecedented-climate-chaos/
It is interesting as "the blob" was originally the term used for a cold patch in the Atlantic. According to this article, that term has by the media been hijacked and now the cold blob in the Atlantic is largely forgotten. So what is going on there?
https://www.sott.net/article/321975-July-snow-in-Western-USA-Atlantic-ice-whirlpools-and-the-Cold-Blob-switches-oceans
October like temps are expected across the western USA along with SNOW over the next week well into July. Interesting how the warmest year ever has snow in July. A unique ice whirlpool visible from space off the coast of eastern Canada. The "Cold Blob" has switched oceans and become hot, well at least in the media.
 
There has been unusually large number of stranded whales lately reported in Norway. There was also one interesting article month ago, which I failed to find, in which they've been quoting one scientist, who was tracking with sonar, largest concentrations of cod ever observed, near Lofoten.

Since March 28, a large number of dead whales have been washed ashore in northern Norway. The exact figure is unclear, but there were 15 whales of different species that have been stranded from Vega on Helgeland in the south to Rebbenesøy in Tromsø in the north.
Advanced simulation developed by the Institute of Meteorology reveals the whales' journey back in time. All the dead whales have a common denominator: they have been in the same place at the same time.
Simulation whales of shore Norway.png
The area in the red ring is where the whales must have stayed at the same time in mid-March. The calculations show that most of the whales may have been in the same sea area just west of Lofoten in mid-March while they were probably still alive. "We were given a list of locations and dates where the dead whales were found. Then we have counted fifty days back in time to find out where the whales came from," says senior scientist at the Meteorological Institute, Knut-Frode Dagestad to NRK. This is called driveway simulation. They have used ocean models and atmospheric models (wind) and assume that the whales are driving the ocean currents plus one percent of the wind.

Seismic activity has been suggested as one of the causes of strandings. But this has probably not been the case this time. NRK.
 
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