Antarctica once covered in palm trees, scientists discover

Don't bother just go to Google Scholar and type "princeton" and "Super volcano" and you should get the link you want
http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=princeton+supervolcanoes&btnG=&as_sdt=1,5&as_sdtp=

 

Even if the Antarctic did not drift much from it's present position the ocean currents were different

 

With respect we have and Ice caps have come and gone from earth - in fact in times of very low CO2 the planet was covered in ice!!

 

Plate tectonics are not ocean currents.

The Red Sea is still getting wider at the southern end near the Indian Ocean. The Sea floor is getting wider. Its splits.

In recent years the Red Sea has become 28 feet wider.

 

Yes, know that but one of the biggest influences on global temperature is what is called "the great ocean conveyor" and we have no idea what the ocean currents were like then

 

True.. and I don't know what causes ocean currents. I would assume it would be tides, prevailing winds, depth and water temperture.

 

Yes, if it wasn't for the conveyor and the Gulf Stream Britain would experience the same climate as Northern Canada, or the tundra regions of Siberia, rather than the temperate climate we currently enjoy.

 

And Salinity and relative densities depending on temperature - it is very very complicated

 

"Temperate"?? You call that "Temperate"? Why the real reason that Scotsmen wear kilts is that it makes it easier to knock the icicles off their ............. um yeah won't go there!

 

Yes,, and at one time, Australia the driest continent on the planet was covered by a huge inland lake.

 

What happened? Aboriginal SUVs?

 

Oh! Ha Ha!

What happened was plate tectonics and a changing world environment (and yes we DO realise it can change by itself - that does not mean man is not responsible for the current change)

 

I'm neutral when it comes to the climate change debate..

Now I'm no climate expert or anything, but how can tropical vegetation exist where the polar caps are today? It's so far from the warmer equator.

 

Because the polar ice caps had melted - what we do not know is what the !#@ the tropics were doing then

 

Or not.....the fact remains that far more radical warming took place about 10,000-12,000 years ago than today.

The geological record doens't really support the AGW argument, or do you know of someplace CURRENTLY. where the Great Lakes are being formed again, as solid ice sheets, up to a mile thick, covering over 30% of the Northern Hemisphere, are being melted into glaciers?

Didn't think so....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_climatic_optimum

 

In my mind, the equator at that time would have had to be where the ice caps are today. I just don't see how it's possible.

 

Antarctica was once where Autralia is now, and back then, there was a far higher amount of oxygen in the air and the climate was extremely warm. Continental drift caused the continent to movie to where it is presently. Australia once had its own share of rainforest, but climate change occured along with the aborigines burning a lot of it to kill the extremely large and dangerous megafauna that once populated the continent (such as the Megalania, a MOFO of a monitor lizard that could grow to 25 feet long and weigh upwards of a ton)

I would burn down a forest to if there were (*)(*)(*)(*)ers like this living in it.

 

He is a wee tad older than the period we are discussing lols but "Banjo" makes a velocoraptor look tame!!

 

Ha! You got that right; a Scot doesn't do suntans-just varying shades of blue!

 

Is that a waltz he's doing? (Edited for obscure Banjo Paterson reference...)

 

Well, he WAS named after Banjo Patterson as he was found near Winton - where "Waltzing Matilda" was written so - kudos for the reference!!

 

"Eruptive silica growth from the moon's inside", he says. He doesn't seem to be saying the same thing you're saying about why it's happening. At the end he says "...just like all moons, all planets and all suns and our whole universe, is growing". Does he think it's because of the expansion of space? Because expanding space does mean that matter is expanding. I just don't know how a glob of matter should expand relative to itself. Just off the top of my head, I would think that its shape shouldn't change, because the expansion is at all scales; subatomic particles are expanding, parts aren't just moving farther apart. But then if the expansion counters gravity... Also just of the top of my head, the water on Earth doesn't seem like enough mass to account for the difference in size required to get the continents as far apart as they are. The planet would have to have been less than half the size it is now. What's the deal?

 

What pushed the continents around? Did the wind blow them were they are today?

 

The surface is methane ice