So as the title says, what would the world's ocean currents and climatic zones be like if the world looked like this? [I know Antarctica actually split from Tasmania last and not western Australia, but assuming some butterflies and ASBs, let's say it split the other way and didn't fully split]
What would the climate and ocean currents be like if Aus and Antarctica didn't split?
- Thread starter Chris S
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The main problem is that, now, both the polar caps are over water - without the glaciers over land in Antarctica , the sea level would be much, much higher.
The creator of "Jaredia" did a map in which both poles were landless, IIRC. It can give you ideas.
EDIT: the name was "Seapole", here: http://www.worlddreambank.org/S/SEAPOLE.HTM
The creator of "Jaredia" did a map in which both poles were landless, IIRC. It can give you ideas.
EDIT: the name was "Seapole", here: http://www.worlddreambank.org/S/SEAPOLE.HTM
Well both polar caps are only landless to an extent. If I'm not mistaken what is now the Antarctic Peninsula would be the polar region and either the South magnetic pole or true South Pole would be over land.
Here is seapole in worlda format
http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/li...g?id=blank_map_directory:world_future_and_asb
http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/li...g?id=blank_map_directory:world_future_and_asb
Except I really doubt the world would look anything remotely like seapole if Australia and Antartica were still connected.
In particular, the currents in a world with an Australia-Antarctica will be somewhat different and currents affect climate. The currents in an Australia-Antarctica world will not be like the currents in a seapole world.
In particular, the currents in a world with an Australia-Antarctica will be somewhat different and currents affect climate. The currents in an Australia-Antarctica world will not be like the currents in a seapole world.
This may have some ideas:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=3082
Although I'm a little unsure why this is in 'Books and Media'
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=3082
Although I'm a little unsure why this is in 'Books and Media'
With both poles on water, ice ages would be terrible to behold and we might even get snowball-earth episodes. If that happened, the current geological age would be one of massive extinctions, and we wouldn't be here.
If we don't reach the snowball earth point, though, even though the ice ages would be much fiercer and cover a good % of the land, the interglacial periods would be much hotter and wetter (the planetocopia explains very well what those interglacial periods would be like). In fact, these interglacial periods might be so hot that the glaciation process could not happen at all.
So, in the end, it depends on how you want to play with it.
Also, another important factor that you have just removed from the equation is that one of our main climatic drives is the antartic circumpolar oceanic current. What would be our climate like without it? no idea. I naively think it would be hotter, because that current keeps water flowing for a long time under a lot of cold, rather than on warmer waters. Better ask an expert in climate.
If we don't reach the snowball earth point, though, even though the ice ages would be much fiercer and cover a good % of the land, the interglacial periods would be much hotter and wetter (the planetocopia explains very well what those interglacial periods would be like). In fact, these interglacial periods might be so hot that the glaciation process could not happen at all.
So, in the end, it depends on how you want to play with it.
Also, another important factor that you have just removed from the equation is that one of our main climatic drives is the antartic circumpolar oceanic current. What would be our climate like without it? no idea. I naively think it would be hotter, because that current keeps water flowing for a long time under a lot of cold, rather than on warmer waters. Better ask an expert in climate.
thanks. Yes it is complicated but I was hoping someone on here would have an idea of how continental distribution would affect the currents and the climate.
I doubt we would get snowball earth episodes though. The last such episode is speculated to have occurred before 650 million years ago. Since then the planet has changed a lot (for instance the Cambrian explosion) which probably makes it highly unlikely that the conditions would be right another Snowball Earth episode.
Unlikely, yes, i guess the probability is low. But we are (were, before the rise of human civilization) in a position close to it. A lot of our CO2 was locked away safely in form of fossil fuels, and our current era is a sedimentary one, with low geological activity, so the rate of return of that carbon to the atmosphere is low. Maritime poles might have been the last of the circumstances to create a perfect storm.
In any case, don't pay too much attention to me, i'm just a fan of the snowball earth theory
As other suggested, you could check the planetocopy website. It doesn't have the scenario you seek, but you can get a "feel" of how oceanic currents are going to work to warm or chill the climate.
Keep in mind that being climate a non-linear discipline, you have a lot of freedom, to play with different tipping points, to take it to one or other scenario.