Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1932-12-15
SCIENCE FORECASTS
NEXT GREAT DELUGE
Melting Polar Ice Caps to
Cause foundations.

Washington.-We still speak of "the
Ice age as II it belonged to the re-
mote geological past. Biologists have
reached The conclusion that there were
several ice ages. What is more, the
last Ice Age. known as the quaternary.
Is only about half over. despite our
hlisterng summers. Eternal Ice" or
"eternal snow" are Pigments of the po-
etc imagination. Very slowly the
great Ice sheets In the Arctic and Ant
arctic regions are melting and pour
Ing their torrents into the oceans. The
earth must Inevitably change its as
pect and Its climate.
How the change is slowly taking
place and what the result will he has
| been considered by such able geolo-
gists. physicists and meteorlogists as
Prof. Sir Edgeworth David OF the
University of Sydney, Australia. Prof.
Wilhelm Meinardus of Gottingen and
a score of others. The latest Is Dr.
William J. Humphreys of the United
| States weather bureau. who recently
| addressed the American Meteorol0gi.
cal society on the subject, summarize
| Ing old views and modifying them In
the light of the information gathered
In the Antarctic regions by the Byrd
|, expedition and In Greenland by the i'll
fated Prof. Alfred Wcgener and his
companions.
al cnn~xe nsdue>d hu ~ 1tf
The glacial sheets that now cover
the North and South poles were once
| 12,O00MU square miles In extent
more than one-ffth the present total
land area Of the globe. In the course
Of about 100000 years they have melt
ed down to their present area OF
| about 100000 square miles. The Ice
on Greenland alone Is ten times vast
err than the area of the State OF New
York. Wegener's echo soundlngs
| showed that II Is over 1900 feet thick
near the center OF the island and
about 400 feet thick near the edges
Of the bowl over which 1t spills. here,
then. we have enough Ice TO provide
| = layer of water one mile thick over
| 100000 Of Greenlands 827.275 square
miles OF surface. To this we must add
another layer Of mIle-deep water which
would be spread over 3,a0OOOO square
miles Of Antarcticas 100000 square
miles,
The. earth Is steadily growing warm.
/ err As all the Ice ut the two poles
melts stupendous volume Of water
will be released. Professor David con-
seryatvelv estimates that the sea lev
ell will rise so feet. Professor Mein-
ardus doubles that estimate. Doctor
Humphreys, with the studies of Byrd
and Wegener before him. believes that
the rise will he 151 feet Such floods
are nothing new. as we see by the
marine fossils found on the tops OF
! the Rockies. Andes and other noun
! tain ranges.
The Dciuue of the Future.
SO, within 10000 or 10000 years
ter will sweep over the continents,
leaving only the higher land dry.
Holland will be inundated. Fish will
swim In Buckingham palace and West
minister abbey. for most Of England
will lie beneath the waves. The Des-
ert OF Sahara will be great inland
!, sea. What Is now New York will be
marked by the upper stories and tow.
ers OF the taller skyscrnpers as they
| jut out uf the water.
In an inundntion which would thus
change geography and which would
! be accompanied by rise In tempera-
ture, the climate would return to what
| Is was when dinosaurs roamed the
earth and dense jungles OF dank, g.
! gantic ferns grew In what are now
! Pennsylvania and Canada. Palms and
alligators would flourish at the poles
az they did millions OF years ago.
What will become OF man II climat-
! lie conditions are thus changed2 Ice
sheets In high ATTITUDES produce strong
contrasts In temperatures between the
] polar and equatorial regions. Winds.
storms, weather tnal changes lFOW
day to day are the result Man -four
! Ishes under such conditions. II the
/ torrid zone were TO become even more
/ torrid than ii Is. and II what are now
/ frozen tracts around the North and
| South poles are to bear sub-tropicai
life. mans food supply will not be
what Ii is now
Prof. G. s. Simpson OF the British
! meteorological office has advanced the
| theory that Chellean. M0usterian and
| other races OF men that once flour
ished in southern Europe we're wiped
! out because the climate changed and
/ that inedibe yermin took the place
! of the animals that were hunted. No
! one can tell what may happen II
new carboniferous era should follow
the warming Of the earth. Man Is
| about as old as the present Ice age. It
Is a question II he will survive 1t.