In last week’s blog I discussed how Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at a very fast rate and how the introduction of cold, freshwater could disrupt ocean circulation. I will connect that to this week’s blog as scientists believe an ancient Ice Age dam failure impacted local climate in South America. An ice dam contained a giant lake in South America, and when the dam broke/melted tons of freshwater was released into both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This is believed to have changed rainfall totals and ocean temperatures around South America as ocean circulation was changed.

I can connect this with general climate models because no matter how accurate we can get them, there is always room for error. Unknowns and changes in small things can cause butterfly effects and change a whole climate. That is why every GCM is slightly different.

These scientists used a climate model to predict the impact of dumping all this amount of freshwater into the oceans and they hope it will give them an idea as to what Greenland’s and eventually Antarctica’s melting ice sheets will do to ocean circulation. This could give GCM’s and extra factor to better predict future climates.

Resource: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113412583/massive-ancient-ice-age-dam-failure-impacted-local-climate-pacific-ocean-021316/