Changes in Barents Sea ice Edge Positions in the Last 440 years: A Review of Possible Driving Forces

This is the first report of the Barents Sea Ice Edge (BIE) project. The BIE position has varied between latitude 76°N and above 82°N during the last 440 years. During the period 10,000 to 6000 years ago, Arctic climate was significantly warmer than today. We review various oceanic and atmospheric factors that may have an effect on the BIE position. The Gulf Stream beat with respect to alternations in flow intensity and N-S distribution plays a central role for the changes in climate and BIE position during the last millennium. This occurred in combination with external forcing from total solar irradiation, Earth’s shielding strength, Earth’s geomagnetic field intensity, Earth’s rotation, jet stream changes;all factors of which are ultimately driven by the planetary beat on the Sun, the Earth and the Earth-Moon system. During the last 20 years, we see signs of changes and shifts that may signal the end of the late 20th century warm period. The BIE position is likely to start advancing southward in next decade.

Rates of Sea Level Changes—A Clarifying Note

The values of present to future rates in sea level changes vary in an almost chaotic way. In view of the urgent need to handle this question in a constructive way, we must anchor the issue in observational facts, physical laws and long-term scientific experience. Doing so, we can put a solid ultimate frame of any possible rise in sea level in the next centuries: viz. 10.0 mm/yr or 1.0 m per century. If this is the ultimate possible rate, the expected rate in the 21st century must be far less. The author’s proposition is +5 cm ± 15 cm by year 2100.

Sea Level Records on Ouvéa Island in New Caledonia

Ouvéa Island in New Caledonia emerges as a new sea level standard. It has excellent morphological records of former sea level positions at interglacial high-stands as well as records of Holocene changes in sea level from a maximum at about +1.5 m via a significant +70 cm level of sub-recent, probably 17th century, age to a stable to falling sea level in present time.

A Mega-Tsunami in the Baltic Sea 1171 BC: Geological Records with Special Reference to the Lake Mälaren Area in Sweden

At about 3000 C14-year BP or 1200 cal. yrs BC, the Baltic Sea experienced a mega-tsunami with a wave-height of 10 m or more, and a run-up height of up to 16.5 m. This event had significant geological and archaeological effects. We explore the records from the Lake M?laren area in Sweden. The tsunami event is linked to seismic ground shaking and methane venting tectonics at several sites. The triggering factor is proposed to be the Kaali meteor impact in Estonia of the same age. The documentation of a mega-tsunami in the middle of the Bronze Age has wide implications both in geology and in archaeology. The archaeological key sites at Annelund and Apalle are reinterpreted in terms of tsunami wave actions remodelling stratigraphy. By extensive coring, we are able to trace the tsunami effects in both off-shore and on-shore environment. At the time of the event, sea level was at +15 m (due to isostatic uplift). The tsunami wave erosion is traced 13.5 m below sea level. The tsunami run-up over land is traced to +29.5 m to +31.5 m (occasionally even higher), implying a run-up of 14.5 - 16.5 m. In ?ngermanland, the tsunami event was absolutely dated at 1171 varve years BC. Archaeologically, the tsunami event coincides well with the transition between Periods II and III of the South Scandinavian Bronze Age. Period III has traditionally been difficult to identify in the cultural materials of the Lake M?laren region.

Converting Tsunami Wave Heights to Earthquake Magnitudes

There is a fairly strict relation between maximum tsunami wave heights and causation earthquake magnitudes. This provides a new tool for estimating the magnitude of past earthquakes from the observed wave heights of related paleo-tsunami events. The method is subjected to a test versus two paleoseismic events with multiple independent estimates of corresponding earthquake magnitude. The agreement to the tsunami wave height conversion is good, confirming very high magnitudes of M 8.5 - 9.0 and M 8.4 - 8.5. Applying the same method to two Late Holocene events of methane venting tectonics indicates a ground shaking of forces equivalent to a M 8.0 earthquake, seriously changing previous long-term crustal hazard assessments.

The Kaali Impact as Trigger of a Mega-Tsunami Event and Violent Seismotectonics in Sweden

A meteorite impacted the ground in Estonia forming the Kaali Crater dated at 1183 - 1162 BC. It set up a Baltic-wide mega-tsunami dated at 1171 absolute varve years BC. It also triggered violent seismotectonic effect in Sweden. Ancient legends testify of direct observations of the sky phenomena and personal experiences of the ground shaking and tsunami flooding, which makes the Kaali Crater the oldest impact event documented by humans. The Ragnarök apocalypse is likely to lead its origin from the violent geodynamic activity along the Swedish east coast.

New Find of Six-Spoke Sun Wheels from the Bronze Age in Scandinavia

Six-spoke Sun wheels have previously been described by us from Mesopotamia, rock-carvings in Sweden and a golden sky dome from Sweden. The division of the Sun wheel into six segments refers to the six double-months of 60 days, and a full annual cycle of 360 days. In this paper we report the findings of a stone carving with 9 six-spoke Sun wheels and two solar eclipses found and depicted in 1840 in Denmark. The spokes in the nine Sun wheels are in N-S, E-W and NW-SE direction. The NW-SE line co-insides with the sunset at summer solstice and sunrise at winter solstice, which is in full agreement with the alignment of the famous stone-ship of Ales Stones in southernmost Sweden. The new stone carving in Denmark provides a confirmation of the deep knowledge in astronomy existing among the Bronze Age people, all from Mesopotamia up the Scandinavia.

Changes in Barents Sea Ice Edge Positions in the Last 442 Years. Part 2: Sun, Moon and Planets

This is the second paper in a series of two, which analyze the position of the Barents Sea ice-edge (BIE) based on a 442-year long dataset to understand its time variations. The data have been collected from ship-logs, polar expeditions, and hunters in addition to airplanes and satellites in recent times. Our main result is that the BIE position alternates between a southern and a northern position followed by Gulf Stream Beats (GSBs) at the occurrence of deep solar minima. We decompose the low frequency BIE position variations in cycles composed of dominant periods which are related to the Jose period of 179 years, indicating planetary forcings. We propose that the mechanism transferring planetary signals into changes in BIE position is the solar wind (SW), which provides magnetic shielding of the Earth in addition to geomagnetic disturbances. Increase in the solar wind produces pressure which decelerates the Earth’s rotation. It also transfers electrical energy to the ring current in the earth’s magnetosphere. This current magnetizes the earth’s solid core and makes it rotate faster. To conserve angular momentum the earth’s outer fluid mantle rotates slower with a delay of about 100 years. In addition will geomagnetic storms, initiated by solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) penetrate deep in the Earth’s atmosphere and change pressure pattern in the Arctic. This effect is larger during solar minima since the magnetic shielding then is reduced. The Arctic may then experience local warming. The transition of solar activities to a possibly deep and long minimum in the present century may indicate Arctic cooling and the BIE moving south this century. For the North Atlantic region, effects of the BIE expanding southward will have noticeable consequences for the ocean bio-production from about 2040.

Origin of the Amazonian Rainforest

In the last 30 ma, the passive continental margin of South America and the Amazonian basin experienced three periods of major sea level inundation;viz. at around 20 ma, at around 10 ma and at around 3 ma. The establishment of the immense Amazonian rainforest ecosystem covering some 6 million square km can neither have occurred during the periods of high sea level nor at the intermediate periods of arid or semi-arid climatic conditions. Therefore, the origin of the Amazonian rainforest of present-day dimensions must be set at the Late Miocene. The establishment of the Amazonian rainforest implied the withdrawal of enormous quantities of water from the global hydrological cycle. The drastic increase in evaporation leading to the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean occurred at the same time as the Amazonian rainforest (sensu hodierno) establishment suggesting a causal linkage.