When the ice age ended on Earth about 10,000 years ago, the huge masses of ice that covered the continents at that time began to melt. As scientists now speculate, this may have accelerated the movement of continental plates.
The last Ice Age
Two geophysicists at the University of Colorado at Boulder recently published the results of computer modeling of ice sheet melting at the end of the last ice age. As a result, something interesting was discovered about how it impacted geologic processes on our planet.
In total, the researchers analyzed events from 26,000 years in the past to the present. At the beginning of this period, the Earth began to be covered with a thick layer of ice. For example, in North America, glaciers reached as far as present-day Pennsylvania. However, about 10,000 years ago, they began to melt rapidly.
This released a huge amount of water that flowed into the oceans. At the same time, the pressure on the continental plates decreased dramatically. Scientists have known for a long time that this caused them to rise. However, the result of the new modeling showed that they began to move more intensively not only in the vertical plane but also in the horizontal plane.
Linking glaciers to geology
Studies have shown that right after the glaciers melted the crust in North America started moving 25% faster. In the vicinity of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the continents are actually moving apart, it has grown by 40%.
In doing so, all of this was to have a big impact on Iceland. This island is located right at the very junction of the tectonic plates. Therefore, the acceleration of their motion had to cause the volcanoes located on it to erupt.
The latter result is particularly interesting, especially given that a paper was recently published that linked volcanic eruptions in Antarctica to the melting of ice sheets in the Southern Hemisphere. It seems that there is indeed a close relationship between the two processes.
And all of this is particularly interesting given that we’re also now seeing glaciers melting, for example in Greenland. It is quite possible that in addition to the already known problems, it could cause an increase in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
According to phys.org
