On Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:59:25 -0800, delboy wrote:

The argument you are putting forward is that sea ice and the snow on top
of it will melt due to global warming and, being lower in salt content,
will dilute the salinity of oceans. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to
see an increase in sea ice this year. These things are cyclical, and
apparently there was little sea ice in the Medieval mini warm period
between the 9th and 13th Centuries. This allowed the Vikings to settle
in Iceland and Greenland. The ones in Greenland were wiped out by cold
weather in the 15th century. See:

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

The best reference I've seen so far about this is:
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/index.html

A page of it was originally quoted to show how far the Gulf Stream's
effects extend into the Arctic but I found the whole thing a most
interesting read.


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martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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