03. Beginning of the Ice Age

CHAPTER 3
Beginning of the Ice Age The requirements for an ice age are a combination of much cooler summers and greater snowfall than in today’s climate. As discussed in Chapter 1, these requirements are very difficult to meet with uniformitarian theories. Washburn (1980, p. 648), understating the problem, writes:

Yet the mechanism and quantitative adequacy of the effect [discussing the astronomical theory] pose major difficulties, and the nature of the climatic changes responsible for the present ice sheets and for the growth and decay of the Pleistocene glaciers are still problematical. The moisture sources and mechanisms permitting the growth of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets also remain to be established... But can these requirements be met by the climate after a worldwide Flood? This chapter will show how these requirements are indeed met in the post-Flood climate.

Volcanic Dust and Aerosols The newly-emerged land, with high mountain, would have already cooled significantly in the mid and high latitudes, by the end of the Flood. At the most, the present distribution of climate would have resulted, which is unable to support continental ice sheets, except on Antarctica and Greenland. (Once the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets developed, the present climate can maintain them. But they may not have been able to develop in the present climate.) Thus, additional mechanisms, other than those created by post-Flood geography, are needed to produce cooler summers. Volcanic dust and aerosols remaining in the atmosphere following the Flood would provide one such mechanism. This mechanism has been recognized by many creationists (Whitcomb and Morris, 1961, p. 294; Clark, 1968, p. 174; Coffin, 1969, pp. 237-240). The abundant layers of lava and ash, mixed with sedimentary rocks around the world, attest to extensive volcanism during the Flood.

Uniformitarian scientists do not accept a volcanic cooling mechanism, because of their greatly expanded time scale. Since glacial geologists believe each ice age lasted around 100,000 years, volcanism is seen as an insignificant factor. However, the possibility that high volcanic activity could initiate continental glaciation is acknowledged: “...volcanic explosions would need to be an order of magnitude more numerous than during the past 160 years, to result in continental glaciation equivalent to the Wisconsin glacial episode” (Damon, 1968, p. 109). The Wisconsin glacial episode is the last glaciation in the standard ice-age chronology. Bray (1976) has suggested that a period of high volcanism may indeed have triggered glaciation, by causing cooler summers for a few years, which, in turn, resulted in an extensive summer snow cover The snow cover then reinforced the initial cooling, and an ice age started. Bray (1976, p. 414) states: “I suggest here that such a [snow] survival could have resulted from one or several closely spaced massive volcanic ash eruptions.” I believe he has a point.

Volcanic dust and aerosols act like an “inverse greenhouse,” by reflecting solar radiation back to space, while still allowing infrared radiation to escape the earth’s surface (Figure 3.1). This has been shown by modern-day eruptions, which are very limited, compared to those during, and soon after, the Flood. The eruption of Krakatoa, in 1883, was estimated to have deposited 30 to 100 million tons of dust into the global stratosphere. The effect was noticeable worldwide, and lasted several years. The direct-beam solar radiation was decreased about 25%, but 85% of this was regained by diffuse radiation reflected back to the earth from the dust particles. The net loss, therefore, was four percent (Oliver, 1976, p. 936). Mass and Portman (1989, p. 567) report that modern-day eruptions reduce total solar radiation five percent to seven percent in polar latitudes, for about one year. The dust and aerosols from the eruption of Mount Agung, in 1963, caused an observed-surface cooling of about 0.4°C in the tropics for several years (Hansen et al., 1978).

Figure 3.1 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\035.jpg> The Inverse Greenhouse The inverse greenhouse. Straight lines are solar radiation, partly reflected back to space by dust and aerosols. Wavy lines are infrared radiation. The large eruption of Tambora, in 1815, is believed responsible for abnormally cold weather in New England and adjacent Canada the following year or two. During the summer of 1816, an unprecedented series of cold snaps chilled the area. Heavy snow fell in June, and frost caused crop failures in July and August. Sea ice was extensive in Hudson Bay and Davis Strait that summer (Catchpole and Faurer, 1983). Europe simultaneously experienced abnormally cold weather. The year 1816 is called the year without a summer (Hughes, 1979). The unusually cold weather likely was caused by the volcanic dust from Tambora, although some researchers question this claim (Flam, 1989; Mass and Portman, 1989, pp. 588, 589).

Acidity measurements in ice cores from Greenland are apparently a measure of past volcanic activity. These measurements can be roughly correlated to northern hemispheric temperatures for the past 1400 years (Bradley, 1985, pp. 142-145). This is because sulfuric acid is the main volcanic aerosol in the stratosphere. This aerosol is spread around the hemisphere, and possibly the whole world, by upper atmospheric winds. As the aerosol slowly descends back to the surface, some of it falls onto the extant ice sheets. Measurements on ice cores indicate that periods of high volcanic activity correspond to times of cooler temperatures, and low volcanic activity to warmer temperatures. For instance, there was a relative lack of volcanism in the ice cores between 1920 and 1960, which was a time of probable warmer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Other glaciers, in both hemispheres, likely have fluctuated in response to the volcanic activity of the past 100 years (Porter, 1981).

Data from ice cores must be used with caution. The upper portion of ice cores, which represents 1000 or 2000 years, is probably reasonably well dated by counting annual layers. Acidity measurements from these levels probably are reliably correlated with time. The very bottom five percent of the long ice cores supposedly represents about 90% or more of the total time interval. Its time sequence is based on inexact glacier flow models. Furthermore, equilibrium between accumulation and ablation is assumed for the entire Pleistocene period. Consequently, the uniformitarian time scale is automatically built in (Bradley, 1985, pp. 147-150). Equilibrium assumes that the ice sheet probably was built up before the Pleistocene, and that ice has flowed through the ice sheet from near the surface to deep within the ice sheet, and then out into the ocean. Dating the bottom of the core, can, therefore, be hazardous, and time scales derived from such dating have differed widely. However, when push comes to shove, the bottom of long ice cores are generally dated by simple curve-matching to oxygen isotope fluctuations from deep-sea cores (Bradley, 1985, pp. 152, 153). The middle portion of the cores is within the transition between counting annual layers and dating, by glacial flow models. Consequently, this portion likely presents a number of difficulties that make an extension of counting annual layers from the top unreliable. One uncertainty is introduced by the presumed amount of “thinning” of the seasonal layers in order to blend in smoothly with glacial-flow models. Consequently, there is much room for error in the interpretation of the middle portion of long ice cores.

Although increased volcanism correlated to decreased temperatures has been established numerous times, the strength of the cooling has remained controversial (Angell and Korshover, 1985, p. 937). Several complicating factors have surfaced in the 1980s (Schneider, 1983; Ellsaesser, 1986). For instance, several major eruptions apparently did not produce a cooling response. The 1982 eruption of El Chichón, in Mexico, is an example. Not only that, the average annual temperature record is so variable that temperature dips in “nonvolcanic years” are of the same magnitude as dips just after major eruptions.

Recent investigation of the settling rate of a thick layer of volcanic dust suggests that volcanic dust may coagulate and fall to the ground much faster than previously thought (Carey and Sigurdsson, 1982; Devine et al., 1984, p. 6320; Rampino et al., 1985). Accordingly, the cooling effect from the dust itself is probably short lived, on the order of several months (Toon et al., 1982, p. 188). But research has also shown that aerosols, especially sulfur and possibly halogen compounds, remain in the stratosphere much longer than the dust, and are, therefore, more responsible for volcanic cooling (Devine et al., 1984). Volcanic cooling of the global atmosphere is estimated to last about two to three years following an eruption, but can range from one year to more than five years (Angell and Korshover, 1985, p. 946). Summer and autumn temperatures are the most influenced by volcanic eruptions (Bradley, 1988). These are the most important months for producing an ice age.

Some of the observational complications are being resolved by more sophisticated analytical techniques. By using superposed epoch analysis (Panofsky and Brier, 1965, pp. 159-161), in which the years before and after each major eruption are composited, a statistically significant cooling trend has been established (Angell and Korshover, 1985, p. 947). Superposed epoch analysis smooths most of the nonvolcanic climate variability. Furthermore, individual eruptions need to be examined closer, because the latitude of the eruption, as well as its magnitude, determine the distribution of the cooling effect (Anonymous, 1986; Budyko and MacCracken, 1987, p. 242). For example, the dust, and probably the aerosols from the El Chichón eruption in Mexico remained in the tropics for about six months, before spreading into higher latitudes. As a result, the cooling from El Chichón was slight in polar latitudes. Mid-latitude eruptions are the most important for mid and high-latitude cooling needed for an ice age (Bradley, 1988).

Although some analysts have claimed a quick tropical cooling from El Chichón, others have not detected any significant effect (Angell and Korshover, 1985). The lack of significant cooling probably was due to a compensating warming, caused by a strong El Niño that year (Angell, 1988). An El Niño is a rather sudden warming of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, which warms the tropical air and possibly the atmosphere in the extratropics, as well. El Niños have been associated with other large volcanic eruptions (King, 1987, p. 347; Angell, 1988). Evidently the cooling caused by tropical volcanism may be masked by other short-term variables that cause warming (Angell and Korshover, 1985, pp. 947, 948).

Interest in the climatic effect of dust and soot from nuclear war has produced extensive research on the “nuclear winter” concept. A “nuclear winter” has been compared to the effect of very large prehistoric volcanic eruptions, and to the hypothesized asteroid extinction of the dinosaurs. Climate models indicate that a nuclear winter would likely involve mid-latitude surface temperature drops, in continental interiors, to well below freezing in a matter of days, in either summer or winter (Toon et al., 1982; Turco et al., 1983; Covey et al., 1984, p. 308). Toon et al. (1982, p. 197) speculate:

Sub-freezing temperatures for 6 months over the entire globe could possibly lead to extensive snowfield buildup over large areas of the continents. Such snowfields would greatly increase the albedo of the Earth and could sustain themselves indefinitely.

Nuclear winter models have produced much controversy, mainly because of the simple parameterizations and assumptions involved. More sophisticated models have recently shown that the climatic catastrophe would be less disastrous-more like “nuclear fall” (Beardsley, 1986). The climatic consequences of atmospheric dust in such scenarios is still significant, and is analogous to very large volcanic eruptions. Thus, research on nuclear winter indicates that heavy volcanic dust and aerosol loading following the Genesis Flood, would have caused strong continental cooling with the rapid establishment of a snow cover. There would also have been cooling in the tropics, due to less sunshine. Volcanic cooling was likely the cause of tropical mountain glaciation that has occurred at significantly lower altitudes than the elevations of the present glaciers there. Lower tropical mountain glaciation may be nearly impossible to explain by uniformitarian theories. In the immediate post-Flood climate, volcanic dust would have caused very little cooling of the warm oceans. The reason for this is the large heat capacity and circulation of the ocean. Temperature changes on land are rapid, but a relatively large heat gain or loss is required to significantly change the temperature of the ocean. Toon et al. (1982, p. 187) state that in a nuclear winter, “...the oceans cool by only a few degrees owing to their large heat capacity.” Therefore, the warm ocean, following the Flood, would be influenced very little from the volcanic dust, while the land would cool substantially.

Snow-Cover Cooling

Volcanic dust and aerosols would initiate an extensive snow cover on mid and high-latitude continents. Once a snow cover has become established, summer cooling would be strongly reinforced (Budyko, 1978, pp. 94, 95). In other words, the snow cover acts as a positive feedback mechanism to a temperature drop. A positive feedback mechanism acts to reinforce the initial perturbation, in this case summer cooling from volcanic dust. Cooling from a snow cover is the strongest positive feedback mechanism the climate offers, and the one invoked the most often by ice-age researchers to reinforce any cooling they can generate from their theories. The biggest problem in applying this positive feedback mechanism is the initial establishment of a permanent snow cover. The snow cover further cools the atmosphere by increasing the reflectivity, or albedo of the surface to solar radiation. Table 3.1 lists the albedos of various surfaces. Fresh snow has an albedo of about 0.8, which means that 80% of the solar radiation is reflected back to space. The albedo of the earth’s surface that is not covered by snow or ice is variable, but averages about 0.15. Consequently, five times more sunlight is reflected back to space from a fresh snow cover, than from bare ground, under clear skies. Clouds will decrease this difference by variable amounts since clouds are highly reflective. For a present-day average cloud cover of 52% over the earth, the average earth/atmosphere albedo is approximately 0.33. So, under average cloudiness, a fresh snow cover will reflect about 2.5 times more sunlight back to space. With less sunlight absorbed at the surface, infrared radiation loss causes the air temperature above the snow to dip much lower than without the snow cover. Furthermore, snow is a good insulator, and will shield the cold atmosphere from the warmer ground.

The effect of a snow cover is illustrated by the following hypothetical example:

Thus, if snow and ice covered the whole surface of the Earth even for a short period of time, its mean temperature (equal now to 15°C) would be reduced by approximately 100°C. This estimate shows what an enormous effect snow cover can exert on the thermal regime (Budyko, 1978, p. 95).

Toon et al. (1982, p. 197) concur: “The problem of the ice-covered Earth has been investigated many times, and it has been generally concluded that with the present solar luminosity an ice-covered Earth represents a stable climatic condition....” The albedo of snow can change rapidly with age and/or melting, as will be discussed in Chapter 6. The albedo of old or wet snow Isaiah 0.4 to 0.6, and for ice, is only 0.2 to 0.4-significantly less than that for fresh snow (Paterson, 1981, p. 305). So the amount of sunlight reflected from the snow surface will especially depend on the quality of the snow. During glaciation, ice would rarely be exposed at the surface, and if snowfall remained heavy in summer, the snow surface would generally continue fresh, with a high albedo. Thus, heavy summer snow is required for the positive feedback mechanism to work the best. A snow cover, especially if it was fresh, in the post-Flood climate would also compensate for periods of volcanic lulls that allowed more sunshine to penetrate the surface.

Barren Land

Barren land acts as a reinforcement for snow-cover cooling. Note in Table 3.1 that a snow-covered plain will reflect back to space about three times as much sunlight as a forested surface with a snow cover. The darker color of the trees and bushes is responsible for the greater absorption of solar radiation (Otterman et al., 1984). Immediately following the Flood, the land was completely barren. Once a snow cover was established, the high albedo of fresh snow on barren land would cause greater cooling than would be the case in areas that are presently tree covered.

Trees and bushes present additional problems for ice age theories, such as the astronomical theory, that depend upon present processes. Trees and bushes now cover most of the areas of Europe and North America that were formerly glaciated. In the uniformitarian model, a similar vegetation pattern should precede each ice age. To overcome the higher solar absorption of vegetation-covered terrain, a uniformitarian ice age would need an even greater summer chill and higher snowfall than Williams (1979) has estimated (see Chapter 1).

According to glacial scientists, an ice sheet developed in the far north and then moved slowly into the northern United States. According to the evidence available, at least one ice sheet had to move as far south as 37°N in the central United States. If this were true, all the trees and vegetation in its path would die and end up in the glacial till. The same scenario would be repeated 20 to 30 times. Abundant evidence of these past forests and vegetation should be found mixed in with the glacial till. However, Charlesworth (1957, pp. 225, 226) states that fossil flora are rare:

Evidence has been found which suggests that the ice in places advanced over standing and probably living forests in which the annual rings show a marked decrease in the rate of growth only during the last twelve years before death occurred. Nevertheless, the ice may generally have invaded a barren, timberless and storm-swept country.... The rarity of vegetation in the drift suggests that the preglacial material was carried beyond the limits of glaciation.

According to the model presented in this book, a post-Flood ice age developed on barren land. It would have begun immediately in most areas that became glaciated, including the central United States. Those areas not immediately glaciated were close to the warm ocean. When the initial conditions ameliorated, the ice and snow in the central United States would have melted first, because of its southerly latitude. Trees and vegetation within the till are normally not expected in this post-Flood model. The trees and vegetation that are rarely found can be explained as later glacial oscillations engulfing forests that grew south of the ice sheets.

Charlesworth presents two possible explanations for the rarity of trees in glacial drift. One suggestion is that the trees all died and disappeared well before the glaciers descended from the north. His explanation may be possible within the uniformitarian framework. However, if the climate was that cold and harsh, conditions probably would have been too dry for an ice age. Trees likely would have died in a colder climate, in advance of an ice sheet in most of Canada (Ball, 1986), but the argument would hardly hold in extreme southern Canada and the United States. In these areas, conditions likely would not have been too cold for at least the more hardy trees, such as spruce and birch, to grow, unless the climate was too dry. The rare occurrence of fossil trees that show growth for 12 years before burial indicates that trees and vegetation did grow south of the ice sheets. The trees did not decompose and disappear, before inundation by ice. If a substantial number of trees had existed and decomposed before glaciation, their existence should be apparent from organic residue in the till.

Charlesworth’s second suggestion seems very unlikely. It is hard to understand how a majority of existing trees could be carried beyond the limits of glaciation by meltwater streams, after the trees had been buried in glacial drift. Regardless of whether uniformitarian scientists can satisfactorily explain the scarcity of trees and shrubs, the rarity of organic remains in glacial debris is more in accord with an ice sheet that developed rapidly over denuded land.

More Cloudiness

Another mechanism reinforcing cooler mid and high-latitude summers is an increase in cloudiness. Until recently, the effect of clouds on climate was unknown (Stephens and Webster, 1981). The problem was that clouds reflect a significant proportion of solar radiation back to space, while they absorb infrared radiation and re-emit it back to the ground. The two effects were believed to be compensatory, so that a change in cloudiness would have little effect on surface temperatures. Recent satellite measurements of the solar and infrared radiation balance have revealed that clouds do exert a major influence on the surface temperature. A regional increase in cloudiness causes cooler surface temperatures, and vice versa (Ramanathan et al., 1989; Monastersky, 1989a, p. 6). These results are preliminary, but solid. Other variables, like cloud height, type, and structure, modulate the magnitude of the temperature change. The radiative effects of clouds have several interesting variations with latitude. In the tropics, the sunlight reflection and infrared radiation from clouds actually balance each other, causing no net change in ground temperature. In other words, a change in cloud cover apparently makes no temperature difference in the tropics. However, clouds significantly influence surface temperatures in the mid and high latitudes. Cloud changes are most effective over the oceanic storm tracks. The most surprising result of this new research is the large magnitude of surface cooling that results from increased cloudiness. A change in cloudiness is much more effective than a change in Col 2:1-23 -a subject of much modern concern and research. Ramanathan et al. (1989, p. 57) write: The greenhouse effect of clouds may be larger than that resulting from a hundredfold increase in the C02 concentration of the atmosphere.... Hence, small changes in the cloud-radiative forcing fields can play a significant role as a climate feedback mechanism.

How does this new result reinforce cooler summer temperatures from other mechanisms? The post-Flood oceans at mid and high latitude were quite warm. The warmer the water, the more rapidly water vapor would have been evaporated from it. Cloudiness and precipitation will increase as the water vapor in the air is increased. Accordingly, the immediate post-Flood era should have had greater cloudiness and cooler summers than is characteristic of the present.

Carbon Dioxide A reduction of the greenhouse gas, Col 2:1-23, would make a delayed contribution to cooler summer temperatures. Carbon dioxide is a minor constituent of the atmosphere, but it absorbs infrared radiation at certain wavelengths, while being more or less transparent to solar radiation (Budyko, 1978, p. 108). Col 2:1-23 is a greenhouse gas, like water vapor, but not as significant as the latter. An increase in carbon dioxide will increase temperatures, and a decrease will lower temperatures. This concept is theoretically sound, but its magnitude is disputed, because of possible compensating or negative feedback mechanisms. Climate models have consistently predicted a global temperature increase from 1.5°C to about 5.5°C for a doubling of Col 2:1-23 (Brewer, 1978, p. 16; Manabe and Broccoli, 1985a; Ramanathan et al., 1989, p. 62; Monastersky, 1989b, p. 234). One investigator believes that changes in carbon dioxide may have little atmospheric temperature response (Idso, 1987). The reason for the differing conclusions is that current models are too simple to adequately describe all the many interacting processes related to Col 2:1-23 in the atmosphere and ocean.

Much has been learned, in recent years, about atmospheric Col 2:1-23 and its interactions with the ocean and biosphere. This increased understanding is the result of research prompted by fears of carbon dioxide climate warming, due to deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. A few scientists believe a climate warming may cause the West Antarctic ice sheet to either disintegrate or surge into the ocean, raising sea level, and destroying many seaport cities. A lower level of atmospheric Col 2:1-23 has been invoked recently, to boost the weak Milankovitch theory for starting an ice age (Kerr, 1988, p. 532): But the variations in the tilt and direction of Earth’s axis of rotation and the shape of its orbit could not fully account for the magnitude of the chilling during an ice age. Within the past few years, marine sediments and glacial ice have yielded evidence that carbon dioxide, through its greenhouse effect, acts as an essential amplifier of the climate effects of Earth’s orbital variations.

Support for this thesis comes from the discovery of reduced Col 2:1-23 in air bubbles trapped in the deeper ice of the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets (Sundquist, 1987). This ice was presumably deposited during the last glaciation. Scientists claim that the level of carbon dioxide during the ice age was about 200ppm (parts per million), which compares to a pre-industrial value of about 275ppm and a current value of 350ppm (Anonymous, 1988). The value of 200ppm is likely not significant enough to compensate for the deficiency of the Milankovitch mechanism. The average world temperature since preindustrial times is believed to have warmed on the order of only 0.5°C for the 25% increase in Col 2:1-23. On this basis, a 25% decrease to presumed glacial Col 2:1-23 values would likely cause a temperature drop of only 0.5°C, which is hardly significant (see Chapter 1).

There is doubt whether the average world temperature has really increased 0.5°C since pre-industrial times. If there has been no increase, or an increase of less than 0.5°C (which is more likely), the influence of carbon dioxide changes on temperatures is even less significant than has been proposed. The reason for the doubt is because many variables, which have not been taken into account, have influenced temperature records. One systematic variable not related to climate change that would cause warmer temperatures at weather stations is the urban heat island effect. As cities grew during the 20th century, more heat was given off by buildings and homes, and more solar radiation was absorbed by concrete and asphalt. This warming can be substantial for big cities, where weather stations are often located. A recent report analyzes this complex and incompletely understood variable. Karl and Jones (1989, p. 265) conclude that the urban heat island effect has warmed average temperatures in the United States anywhere from 0.1°C to 0.4°C during the 20th century, although the former value is thought best (Jones et al., 1989). This is a substantial fraction of the 0.5°C temperature rise that has been presumed to be due to carbon dioxide warming. Karl and Jones (1989, p. 269) state: “The magnitude of the urban bias in two global, land-based data sets was found to be a substantial portion of the overall trend of global and regional temperatures.”

Another significant variable that may be responsible for the presumed worldwide temperature change during the past 100 years is volcanic dust. A large number of volcanic eruptions, from 1880 to 1915, most likely cooled temperatures at that time (Budyko and MacCracken, 1987, p. 242). Less volcanic activity, after 1915, could be responsible for warmer temperatures. Support for a general decrease in volcanic dust and aerosols in the Northern Hemisphere comes from acidity measurements in Greenland ice cores and from Northern Hemisphere glacier mass balance (Porter, 1981).

Therefore, there is a high probability that other variables besides Col 2:1-23 increase have caused the presumed 0.5°C-20th-century temperature increase at weather stations. Consequently, the impact of a 25% decrease in Col 2:1-23, postulated as a booster in uniformitarian ice age modeling, is miniscule.

Before discussing how atmospheric carbon dioxide decreased during the post-Flood ice age, we need a brief overview of the important variables influencing atmospheric Col 2:1-23. The natural sources and sinks of carbon dioxide are extremely complex, and are not worked out in detail (Trabalka and Reichle, 1986). However, the general features of the carbon cycle are well enough understood to allow a good qualitative estimate of the change in carbon dioxide associated with a post-Flood ice age. The concentration of atmospheric Col 2:1-23 depends largely on the terrestrial and oceanic biosphere and the oceanic reservoir of inorganic carbon. Table 3.2 presents the current estimates of carbon in the most important carbon reservoirs (Bolin, 1986, p. 408). About four times as much carbon is stored in wood, vegetation, soil, peat, and decaying surface detritus as in the atmosphere.

The ocean contains a very large amount of dissolved carbon dioxide, especially in the deeper ocean. The ocean surface and the air are constantly exchanging Col 2:1-23, depending mostly upon the difference in the Col 2:1-23 partial pressure between the ocean and the air, as well as the wind speed (Fung, 1986, pp. 464, 465). If the partial pressure is lower in the ocean, carbon dioxide is transferred from the air into the water. The partial pressure of Col 2:1-23 in the ocean surface layer depends upon surface temperature, salinity, upwelling of rich Col 2:1-23 waters, and biological activity (Trabalka and Reichle, 1986). At a constant salinity, the amount of Col 2:1-23 dissolved in the surface water increases with decreasing temperature (Brewer et al., 1986, p. 366). The reason for this inverse effect is the lower partial Col 2:1-23 pressure due to greater Col 2:1-23 solubility at cooler temperatures (Brewer, 1978, p. 15). Consequently, cooler water absorbs more Col 2:1-23 from the atmosphere.

Immediately after the Flood, the amount of Col 2:1-23 in the atmosphere and ocean likely was relatively high. A large Col 2:1-23 content could have been associated with the large pre-Flood biosphere. Decomposition of this biosphere would have generated a large Col 2:1-23 input. Mixing of the ocean waters during the Flood would have distributed the Col 2:1-23 between atmosphere and ocean. Higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere immediately after the Flood would have resulted in warmer temperatures, if there were no variables causing cooler temperatures. However, Col 2:1-23 would have decreased rapidly during the ice age. This decrease would reinforce summer cooling over land, possibly when some of the other mechanisms, like volcanic dust, may have been waning. The reason for this decrease is the rapid development of vegetation, soil, and peat on a barren earth, taking Col 2:1-23 out of the air. Recent research shows the initial rate of decrease of Col 2:1-23 would have been relatively rapid. Schlesinger (1986, p. 196) writes: “When vegetation colonizes a newly available land surface, that is, primary succession, there is often a rapid accumulation of organic carbon in the soil.” Current inventories of terrestrial carbon from Table 3.2 indicate how much Col 2:1-23 as been taken out of the air after the Flood. Most of this terrestrial carbon likely built up during the ice age. The post-Flood oceans would have had a high Col 2:1-23 partial pressure at first, due to a large amount of decaying organic material from the Flood, and to the warm temperature of the water. A higher partial pressure in the ocean would cause a corresponding higher atmospheric Col 2:1-23 content. As the oceans cooled during the ice age, the partial pressure would have decreased with concomitant transfer of Col 2:1-23 from the air into the ocean. Abundant nutrients dissolved in the ocean during the Flood, and an overturning ocean (see Chapters 4 and 8) would have resulted in very large post-Flood rates of phytoplankton and zooplankton growth. The plankton would fix some of the oceanic Col 2:1-23 in their structures, decreasing, further, the oceanic and atmospheric partial pressures of Col 2:1-23. It is apparent that many factors would contribute to a large decrease in atmospheric Col 2:1-23, as the ice age progressed. The decrease would be much larger than the meager 75ppm decrease surmised for uniformitarian models. At the end of the ice age, when the ice sheets would be melting and the atmosphere colder than now (see Chapter 6), the Col 2:1-23 content of the atmosphere likely would be lower than it is today.

Storm Tracks The climate soon after the Flood would be characterized by cold continents, especially at mid and high latitudes, due to volcanic dust, an extensive snow cover over barren terrain, and greater cloudiness than at present. The ocean adjacent to these continents would be relatively warm, due to the very warm “fountains of the great deep” during the Flood. The cooling mechanisms would hardly affect the warm ocean. Consequently, isotherms, which are lines of equal temperature, would parallel the coasts of mid and high-latitude continents. The greatest horizontal change in temperature would be along the shore line. A secondary area of packed isotherms (area of rapid change in temperature perpendicular to the isotherms), would develop just south of the building ice sheets. The postulated annual average isotherms at the beginning of the ice age for Northern America, are depicted in Figure 3.2. Notice the strong packing of isotherms along the east coast of North America and in the southeast United States.

Figure 3.2 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\047.jpg>Postulated Temperature at the Beginning of Ice Age Postulated annual temperature (° C) for North American at the beginning of a post-Flood ice age. From meteorological principles, the wind speed would increase rapidly, with altitude above these areas of strong packing. The wind direction would be mostly parallel to the isotherms, with the coldest air to the left of an individual with his back to the wind. Figure 3.3 depicts this relationship between a north-south horizontal temperature difference and the change in the west wind aloft. This relationship is expressed by the thermal wind equation for the east-west component of the wind (Hess, 1959, p. 191):

(3.1) where Du/Dz is the change in the east-west component of the wind, u, with altitude, z; g is the gravitational constant; f is the coriolis force; T is the average temperature; and DT/Dy is the change in the temperature in the north-south direction, y. An analogous expression exists for the north-south component of the wind. The thermal wind relationship may be difficult for the layman or non-meteorologist to understand. Referring to Figure 3.3, note that since cold air to the north has a higher density, the pressure decreases faster with altitude than in the warmer air to the south. Consequently, the north-south change in pressure between and warm and cold air increases with height. Since wind is proportional to the pressure difference, the wind increases with altitude. Instead of the wind blowing from higher to lower pressure, the coriolis force causes the wind to turn to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, and blow parallel to the isotherms.

Figure 3.3 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\049.jpg>The Thermal Wind Relationship The thermal wind relationship. The arrows represent increasing west wind with altitude (Z direction). The dotted lines are east-west isotherms. In the post-Flood climate, the cold mid and high-latitude continents would cause a trough of low pressure aloft to develop. The warm oceans, on the other hand, would induce an upper ridge of high pressure. An upper trough is a pattern in which the wind blows from the northwest on the west side and southwest on the east side of the trough axis. An upper ridge has the opposite wind configuration (Figure 3.4). The upper high pressure ridge over the ocean is caused by the warm ocean heating the atmosphere by contact and by the release of latent heat of condensation from evaporated water. Consequently, the warm air above the oceans has a higher pressure at upper elevations. This trough-ridge upper-air pattern would likely extend to very high altitude in the early post-Flood atmosphere, since the low-level mechanism that caused it would have been so strong. In the Northern Hemisphere, an upper trough would lie over North America and Asia and upper ridges over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. An upper low-pressure area would dominate Antarctica, while the warm surrounding ocean would induce a circular upper ridge, offshore.

Figure 3.4 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\050.jpg>A Ridge-trough Couplet A ridge-trough couplet in the mid and upper atmosphere. The lines are of equal pressure. The arrows represent wind direction. The forcing of high pressure aloft by a warm ocean is the basis for Jerome Namias’s work in correlating above-normal sea-surface temperatures to higher pressure aloft, and seasonal weather prediction. Namias (1972, p. 1174) believes “The physical mechanism of feedback from sea to air, in this case, appears to have been... due to anomalous, differential heat supply from the underlying water.” However, the mechanism involved is only partially understood, and some researchers believe that the higher pressure aloft may actually have induced the warmer sea-surface temperatures (Wallace and Blackmon, 1983, pp. 74-77). The sea-surface temperature anomalies in the present climate are small-on the order of a few degrees Celsius or less. This is probably the reason the sea-air forcing has been difficult to substantiate from atmospheric models. In the post-Flood climate, sea-surface temperatures would be much warmer than any anomalies in the present climate. Atmospheric models have indicated that a radical sea-surface warming would cause a substantial atmospheric response. Namias and Cayan (1981, p. 871) write, in referring to model behavior with present sea surface temperature anomalies: “The responses found were generally small except when unrealistically large SST [sea-surface temperature] anomalies were imposed.” In a general circulation computer simulation, the sea-surface temperature in the mid latitudes, over much of the western Pacific Ocean was raised 3 to 12°C (Chervin et al., 1980). Such a strong sea-surface temperature anomaly caused a significant temperature and pressure increase high in the atmosphere, with stronger storms developing in the southwest portion of the anomaly area and tracking northeastward. This experiment adds credence to the unique trough-ridge pattern of the post-Flood climate.

Thermal forcing by cold continents and warm oceans is only one of two main influences on the upper-air pattern. Orographic, or mountain forcing by predominantly westerly winds aloft over the Rocky and eastern Asian Mountains, is the second. North-south temperature differences across these mountains would exist in the post-Flood climate (Figure 3.2), as in the present winter climate, due to the cold mid-latitude continents and the warm subtropics. By the thermal wind relationship (equation 3.1), relatively strong west winds aloft would be induced. This forcing tends to cause an upper trough about 1,000 miles downstream to the east (Held, 1983), somewhat similar to a boulder in a stream causing a downstream wave. Although there is disagreement on the subject, thermal and orographic forcing are probably of equal importance in the present atmosphere (Chen, 1986). In the post-Flood climate, mountain forcing would reinforce the thermal forcing in eastern North America, making the upper trough especially strong in this area. However, the Himalayas and other ranges in eastern Asia, which are much higher than the Rocky Mountains, would not only exert a stronger influence on the upper circulation, but also would tend to shift the upper trough off the east coast of Asia. According to these considerations, the upper trough, induced by the westerly winds flowing over the eastern Asian mountain, would be out of phase with the thermal forcing caused by the cold Asian continent and the warm North Pacific ocean. This difference in forcing, by the two mountain ranges, is most likely important for the subsequent distribution of ice in the ice age.

Before one can draw the average storm tracks due to cold continents and warm oceans in the early post-Flood climate, the effect of a very warm Arctic Ocean needs evaluating. The Arctic Ocean would be too far north to have much impact on the mid-latitude westerly flow. However, it would add large amounts of heat and water vapor to the atmosphere near the North Pole. As a result, the general north-south temperature difference at high latitude would be reversed, from today, since the continents to the south would be colder (Figure 3.2). An easterly wind flow would likely be induced aloft parallel to the shore line of the Arctic Ocean, especially at the lower levels. The warm Arctic Ocean likely is a key factor in the development of ice over normally very dry Keewatin.

Areas of strong horizontal temperature change are areas of baroclinic instability in meteorological jargon (Holton, 1972, pp. 161-210). In these areas, small surface-pressure perturbations grow into storms. Baroclinic instability and storm development are especially favorable in the strong southwest flow downstream from an upper trough. Based on statistics of time-filtered data, the storm tracks in the present climate are predominantly downstream, and slightly poleward of the upper tropospheric jet stream maximum (Hoskins, 1983, p. 190). Figure 3.5 is a schematic of the relationship between the upper-air pattern and the area of storm development.

Figure 3.5 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\053.jpg>Location of a Surface Low Pressure System The normal location of a surface low pressure system in relationship to the upper trough-ridge pattern and jet stream. The center of the jet stream is depicted as an accented line.

Storms are steered by the strongest winds aloft, i.e., by the jet stream. (This is why so much space has been dedicated to explaining the winds aloft in the post-Flood climate.) In the present atmosphere, the jet stream meanders around the globe. The storm belt likewise shifts with the jet stream, preventing any one location from receiving an over-abundance of precipitation. However, some areas in the mid latitudes do receive relatively large amounts of precipitation, due to a higher frequency of storms. In the post-Flood climate, the thermal and mountain forcings would be more or less permanently fixed year-round. Consequently, storms in this unique climate would follow similar tracks all year long. For instance, storms would commonly develop along the east coast of the United States, and off the east coast of Asia. In the current climate, a storm develops in a baroclinic zone every one to three days. This could also have been the frequency in the post-Flood climate. Storms would often develop and track northeast along and off the east coasts of North America and Asia, where the strongest baroclinic zone exists. The storms would tend to weaken, moving into the higher latitudes, due to a weaker horizontal temperature contrast. Consequently, the major storm tracks along the east coasts in the Northern Hemisphere would splay out into minor storm tracks in various directions. Minor storm tracks would also develop just south of the developing ice sheets, due to the stronger north-south thermal difference. Figure 3.6 presents the major and minor storm tracks postulated for the Northern Hemisphere at the beginning of the ice age.

Figure 3.6 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\054.jpg>    Storm Tracks and Snow Cover in Northern Hemisphere

Postulated major and minor storm tracks and snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere at the beginning of a post-Flood ice age. Solid lines represent major storm tracks and dotted lines represent minor storm tracks. Mtn. Glac. means mountain glaciation. In the Southern Hemisphere, the post-Flood jet stream and the average storm track would be much simpler. A cold continent near the South Pole, and encircled by a warm adjacent ocean, would have storms tracking eastward along the coast (Figure 3.7). But since West Antarctica, at that time, would have been mostly ocean with mountainous islands, storms would more often circle around East Antarctica, which would have been mostly a low-lying flat plain (Bentley, 1965, pp. 263, 267).

Figure 3.7 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\056.jpg>    Storm Tracks and Snow Cover in Antarctica

Postulated major and minor storm tracks and snow cover over Antarctica at the beginning of a post-Flood ice age. Notation the same as in Figure 3.6.

Snowblitz So far it has been shown that the mid and high-latitude continents in the early post-Flood climate would be much cooler in summer, and the approximate position of the storm tracks has been indicated. One more ingredient remains for the development of a post-Flood ice age, and that is the moisture for the snow. An abundant supply of moisture is probably the most serious difficulty for uniformitarian ice age theories. Can the post-Flood climate generate the needed moisture? The needed moisture is evaporated from a much warmer ocean. Evaporation from the ocean surface can be estimated from the bulk aerodynamic equation for evaporation (Bunker, 1976, p. 1122):

E = r CE(QS - Q10)U10(3.2) where E is the average evaporation, r is the air density, CE is the empirically derived exchange coefficient for water vapor, QS is the saturation mixing ratio corresponding to the sea surface temperature, Q10 is the average mixing ratio at ten meters above the ocean, and U10 is the average wind speed at ten meters, which is usually the ship anemometer level. The mixing ratio is the actual amount of water vapor present in the air per unit mass, usually expressed in grams of vapor per kilogram of dry air. Equation 3.2 indicates that evaporation is mainly proportional to the wind speed and the air-sea surface mixing ratio difference. When the air temperature is colder than the sea surface temperature, which would practically always occur in the higher latitudes, the exchange coefficient, CE, varies little, and for all practical purposes, can be considered constant (Bunker, 1976, p. 1126). Bunker’s equation was empirically based on ship observations over large areas, and could be inaccurate. But a recent experiment, using sophisticated technology in measuring the evaporation from the ocean, indicated very close agreement with his equation (Donelan, 1986, p. 1282). The air-sea surface difference in the mixing ratio (QS - Q10) is proportional to the sea-surface temperature. The greater the sea-surface temperature, the greater will be the mixing ratio difference and evaporation, all other variables remaining equal. For instance, at an air-sea temperature difference of 10°C, and a relative humidity of 50%, the term (QS - Q10) would be 20.5 grams/kilogram at a sea-surface temperature of 30°C and only six grams/kilogram at a sea-surface temperature of 10°C. If the sea-surface temperature was 0°C, the term (QS - Q10) would be approximately three grams/kilogram, which is one-seventh the value at 30°C. This example illustrates the strong dependence of sea-water evaporation on water temperature. The mixing ratio difference (QS - Q10) is especially high when cold, dry air blows over warm water. The stronger the wind, the higher the evaporation. Consequently, the highest evaporation in the post-Flood climate would be over the ocean east of Asia and North America. In the present climate, the greatest evaporation in the world is located in the same areas (Bunker, 1976, pp. 1129-1133; Budyko, 1978, p. 88). The evaporation is greatest in winter, when the land-ocean contrast is highest and the wind speed more intense. In the area of strongest evaporation over the Gulf Stream, 2.4 meters of water is evaporated in the fall and winter. Barnett (1978, p. 29) states:

Strong areas of heat uptake by the atmosphere occur during the winter off the eastern margins of the Northern Hemisphere continents, when cold, dry air suddenly encounters a relatively warm ocean. The high evaporation in the northwest Atlantic is in an advantageous location for rapid development of the Laurentide ice sheet. The east coasts of Asia and North America also coincide with the major storm tracks in the post-Flood climate. The strong evaporation in these areas is mostly caused by east coast storms, because storms have strong cold and relatively dry west-to-northwest winds south of the storm center, as depicted in Figure 3.8. Once the cold, dry air encounters the warm water, the air is warmed and moistened rapidly, and quickly accumulates a large amount of water vapor. Since the air-sea temperature and mixing ratio differences decrease along its trajectory, the air soon looses its ability for evaporation. A recent atmospheric experiment, called GALE (Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment), off the east coast of North America, is trying to discover why storms moving out over the Gulf Stream become more intense than expected (Dirks et al., 1988). The extra intensification is probably caused by the latent heat energy released from the evaporated water. As expected, very high evaporation was measured in these storms, and the cold, dry air was rapidly modified along its trajectory over the warm water. Sometimes evaporation was so rapid that steam or “sea smoke” reduced the visibility to zero (Raman and Riordan, 1988, p. 163).

Figure 3.8 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\058.jpg>    Precipitation and Wind During Northeaster

Precipitation and wind around an ice age northeaster. L is the storm center, the solid arrows are wind direction, and the dotted lines are the precipitation boundary. The dashed line is the location of the cross section in Figure 3.10.

Figure 3.9 presents the average evaporation for the early post-Flood climate in the Northern Hemisphere, as determined from postulated major and minor storm tracks and values for the variables in Equation 3.2. High evaporation would occur just east of Asia and North America. Due to a lack of intense storms, the Arctic Ocean would likely have mostly moderate evaporation, especially in areas farther from colder land. Light evaporation would be characteristic of the open ocean. The west coast of North America would likely have a light-to-moderate evaporation rate. This is because the predominant wind direction is westerly, which is too warm and moist for significant evaporation. In the Southern Hemisphere, cold air flowing off East Antarctica would cause high evaporation. This moisture would circulate around the storm center, and condense as snow over the continent. Thus, the greatest evaporation would be just off the Antarctic coast.

Figure 3.9 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\059.jpg>Evaporation from Post-Flood Ocean Postulated evaporation from the post-Flood ocean during the first half of glaciation.

We are now ready to consider the snowblitz. The snowblitz is the concept that a snow cover or an ice sheet develops over large areas all at once, instead of in local mountainous areas, from which it subsequently flows outward (Sugden and John, 1976, pp. 129, 130). One science writer (Calder, 1974, pp. 118, 121) describes the snowblitz as follows: In the snowblitz the ice sheet comes out of the sky and grows, not sideways, but from the bottom upwards. Like airborne troops, invading snowflakes seize whole counties in a single winter. The fact that they have come to stay does not become apparent, though, until the following summer. Then the snow that piled up on the meadows fails to melt completely. Instead it lies through the summer and autumn, reflecting the sunshine. It chills the air and guarantees more snow next winter. Thereafter, as fast as the snow can fall, the ice sheet gradually grows thicker over a huge area.... The cold comes instantly, but then the snow piles up for 5000 years at perhaps 18 inches a year. ‘Instantly’ may mean a hundred years or a single bad summer. So ice ages can start very suddenly-that is the implication of this research and of the snowblitz theory. The snowblitz method of glaciation is not very popular among scientists, even for northeast Canada, because the method is based on simplified energy assumptions and is close to catastrophic. However, the snowblitz is just what would have occurred in the post-Flood ice age, and would have engulfed a far larger area than that envisioned by the most radical proponents of the snowblitz theory. In the post-Flood snowblitz, storms would often develop near the southeastern coast of the United States, and move northeastward. These storms would be very much like present-day “northeasters” that wrack the eastern seaboard of the United States and southeast Canada every year (Figure 3.8). Northeasters cause crippling ice, heavy snow, and gale force winds, with a resultant loss of life and more than a billion dollars in property damage each year (Dirks et al., 1988, p. 148). In these storms, cold, dry air south of the storm center becomes more unstable with time (Bryan, 1978, p. 23). The air moistens, warms, and circulates counterclockwise around the low-pressure center. It is then lifted up and over the denser, cold air to the north and west. The boundary between the cold and warm air is called either a cold or warm front, depending upon whether the cold air is displacing the warm air or vice versa. This boundary slopes westward, north and west of the storm center. The warm, moist air overrunning the cold air would be forced to precipitate, as depicted in Figure 3.10. This is a potent mechanism for heavy snow in the cold air over northeastern North America. In a typical winter-time storm, most of the precipitation falls in the colder air portion of the storm, with a narrow band of showers along the cold front. The air southwest of the low center is usually dry, unless close to the low-pressure center. This general precipitation pattern is depicted in Figure 3.8. As a result, most of the precipitation in post-Flood storms would fall over the cold land.

Figure 3.10 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\062.jpg>Cross Section Through Northeaster An atmospheric cross section through the northern part of a northeaster. The straight angled line is the boundary between cold and warm air. In the post-Flood climate, northeasters would carry much more water vapor, extend over a larger area, and develop much more frequently than they do today. To illustrate the potential for a snowblitz that turns into an ice age, we can conservatively assume that only one northeaster a week developed and moved up the east coast of North America. Let us assume that each storm dropped five centimeters (two inches) of water equivalent of snow over a broad area, which is only twice the snow in modern northeasters. At this rate, with no summer runoff, almost three meters of ice would accumulate in a year. In 200 years, the depth would be 580 meters (1,900 feet) over favorable areas of northeastern North America.

Ice would form from the snow by either of two mechanisms (Paterson, 1969, pp. 5-27). Snow in a cold environment slowly transforms to ice, at depth. The process involves mutual displacement of crystals, changes in size and shape of the crystals, and internal deformation. In the present-day Greenland ice sheet, this transformation is complete at about 100 meters. The second mechanism is the refreezing of meltwater during the warm season. This process operates on temperate glaciers, and would be more characteristic of the early post-Flood ice sheets while the ocean was still warm. Snow is changed to ice at shallow depths by this mechanism, once an adequate depth of snow and ice accumulate to absorb the latent heat of freezing, which Isaiah 80 calories/gram. On the Seward Glacier of Alaska, ice begins at a depth of 13 meters in the water-soaked zone, but higher up the glacier, in the dry, cold zone, it begins at a depth of 80 meters (Paterson, 1969, pp. 15-17). Once ice develops, it will tend to spread by flow, and gradually cover a larger area.

Early Distribution of Snow and Ice From a consideration of the post-Flood climate, it has been established that cool, cloudy continents would exist adjacent to warm, higher-latitude oceans. The storm tracks would generally be locked in place, and snow would fall in the same localities time after time. An ice age would develop, but due to the unique climate, it would not develop in all areas at once. Figures 3.6 and 3.7 show the major areas of snow and ice accumulation early in the ice age, for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively.

High and mid-latitude continents close to a storm track would begin glaciating immediately after the Flood. Eastern Canada would be most favored, from the start. The interior of Canada would develop a permanent, but thinner snow cover. At this time, the north-central United States, down to 37°N latitude, would acquire a snow cover that would eventually turn into a thin ice sheet. This area would be cold in the summer, and located relatively dose to the major storm track along the coast and a minor storm track just to the south. Volcanic activity immediately following the Flood would continue high. (High volcanism at the beginning of the ice age will be explored in Chapter 4.) High volcanism would be correlated to the coolest temperatures and highest precipitation in the north-central United States.

Lowlands, close to the warm ocean water, would not be glaciated at this time. Such areas would include the British Isles and northwest Europe, which would be bathed in warm westerly winds at the beginning of the ice age. Many mountainous regions in these areas would develop icecaps. The higher mountains of Scandinavia, the initial source for the Scandinavian ice sheet, would receive heavy snow, but the low elevations would be snow-free at the beginning. Scandinavia, moreover, was not in a favorable storm track at the beginning of the ice age. Figure 3.6 indicates that Scandinavia would receive decaying storms from a minor storm track to the west. Eventually, a short minor storm track would be induced just south of Scandinavia, due to the developing north-south temperature contrast.

Greenland and West Antarctica, although located at high latitude, would possess only mountain glaciers at this time. Greenland is mostly a low-level plain punctuated by mountains (Fristrup, 1966, pp. 237-248). Warm water would surround Greenland, keeping the lower elevations snow-free in summer. West Antarctica is made up of several mountain ranges, which after the Flood would be mountainous islands in warm water, even considering isostatic uplift (Bentley, 1965, p. 267). East Antarctica would mostly be above sea level (Bentley, 1965, p. 263), and would have a rapidly developing ice sheet at the beginning.

Many mid-latitude mountains would develop a snow cover due to their altitude, for instance, the Alps, the coastal mountains of western North America, the Rocky Mountains, and the southern Andes. The high tropical mountains would become glaciated at lower altitudes than the levels of their present glaciers, due to cooler tropical temperatures from volcanic dust and aerosols. The warmth of the Arctic Ocean would cause the surrounding lands to be warmer and more moist than at present. This ocean would be a moisture source for cold continental areas further south, such as Keewatin, that are normally dry in the current climate.

Alaska and eastern Asia would be unique. The main storm track would be further off the east coast of Asia than the corresponding storm track over eastern North America. The cold, continental air from Asia would therefore be modified by the warm water north and west of the storm track. The heaviest precipitation would mostly fall in the ocean. In addition, the mountains of eastern Asia are much higher than in eastern North America. Continental air, forced down these mountains by predominantly west winds, would tend to warm and dry considerably. This is basically the principle behind the chinook or foehn wind. These conditions would combine to make eastern Asia an unfavorable area for an extensive lowland snow cover, although the mountains would be glaciated. Due to the warmth of the large North Pacific Ocean and the upper ridge over it, storms would be steered into Alaska. By the time they arrived, they would have lost most of their thermal contrast, due to the factors mentioned above for Asia, and also due to the warm Arctic Ocean. Consequently, the lowlands of Alaska would be bathed in relatively warm air, but the mountains would receive heavy snow. Figure 3.11 shows the above variables that would combine to cause only mountain glaciers in Alaska and eastern Asia.

Figure 3.11 <C:\Program Files\e-Sword\Graphics\ICE\065.jpg>    Reason Why Alaska, Asia not Glaciated

Schematic illustrating reason why lowlands of Alaska and eastern Asia were not glaciated. Solid line represents the main storm track and dotted line a minor storm track. Double arrows represent westerly winds sinking down the mountains of east Asia. Dashed lines indicate the average movement of warm moist air.