On 21 Nov, 19:34, Weatherlawyer wrote:
On Nov 21, 3:37 pm, Alastair wrote:

Oh he's a geologist is he?

That means what, exactly?

He knows what he is talking about when it comes to Earth Science ie
the subjects listed herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_science#Partial_list_of_the_major_...

How often do they change the text books in that science?

And just because a man is qualified to list the geological periods as
they are and/or were in both senses of that term and put them into
their correct order -as it might be considered at the moment; it
doesn't follow that he was talking sense about volcanoes or magma.

He assumes (not having been around at the time) that volcanoes got
their fuel from the organisms that died and went to hell on a plate.

2 things struck me as a difficulty in that concept.

1. They'd have to stay squishy if they were to keep their carbon
content intact but not squishy enough to be rolled out at the top when
a plate descended.

2, The amount of Carbon Dioxide produced in volcanoes is more like the
quantities produced in some sort of chemical reaction between rocks.

There just isn't enough carbon in ocean detritus to supply all the
volcanoes all the time. One such seems to have been bubbling away non
stop since forever.

Maybe I am foolish in misinterpreting what he was telling us and am
fully deserving of the ad hominem attacks I am attracting by stating
the remarkably obvious but feck it.

Who can't see what I can see? Am I that astute as to have left the lot
of you stalled at the ********?

Tie a rope round them and I'll give you all a tug when I pass you next.


The carbon that gets subducted is the Great Barrier Reef and the White
Cliffs of Dover. The latter actually stretches from Beer, on the
Dorset/Devon border to Malta and up into the Dolomites. There is
plenty of limestone that has not been buried yet. Not all volcanoes
pump out CO2, but since all the limestone gets formed on the sea bed,
it is in the right place to get subducted.

But I think you have probably spotted the flaw in the argument :-(.
Iain Stewart claimed that the volcanos were maintaining a balance, but
obviously it is a bit of hit or miss whether they emit CO2 or not. If
they were that good then Snowball Earth would never have happened.

What I have worked out is that the level of CO2 set the minimum
temperature and if it drops too low then there is an ice age. But the
maximum temperature is regulated by water vapour, the other greenhouse
gas. Provided there is enough CO2 for water to evaporate, i.e. not a
Snowball Earth, then water vapour will warm the planet and cause more
evaporation. This warming will continue until enough clouds have
formed to shut out the sun and prevent further warming. So with
enough CO2 the planet sits at the steady temperature that produces
enough clouds.

But that temperature is a lot warmer than today's. When man's CO2
melts the remaining ice, then the solar energy it was reflecting will
cause temperatures to rise until there are enough new clouds "to
steady the ship." How high will temperatures have to rise for more
clouds to form?

Cheers, Alastair.