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How would the closing of the Drake Passage affect global ocean currents? With the Greenland ice melting would sea levels be higher, or would new ice sheets in Patagonia and the Andes counteract that?
How would the closing of the Drake Passage affect global ocean currents? With the Greenland ice melting would sea levels be higher, or would new ice sheets in Patagonia and the Andes counteract that?
You would cut off the Antarctic circumpolar current, allowing warmer sea currents to reach Antarctica. Besides, landmass connection between South America and Antarctica would either favor cold air masses spread across South America and continental warm air masses reach Antarctica. To summarize, you would destroy the Antarctic ice sheet.
You would cut off the Antarctic circumpolar current, allowing warmer sea currents to reach Antarctica. Besides, landmass connection between South America and Antarctica would either favor cold air masses spread across South America and continental warm air masses reach Antarctica. To summarize, you would destroy the Antarctic ice sheet.
You think it would completely destroy the Antarctic ice sheet, or just partially? There's no circumpolar current in the Arctic and warmer sea currents are able to get there, but Greenland still has ice sheets and at some periods of history, Fennoscandia and North America does too. It's still over 1000 miles from the Southern Ocean to the South Pole, and the warmer but still cool waters would only carry so much warmth, so far.
I think it's possible some ice sheets would remain in Antarctic, but I agree that a lot would melt, which combined with thermal expansion would lead to sea levels 100-200ft higher than today. This would cause shorelines to shift, including the disappearance of Florida, but perhaps nothing paradigm shifting. You would see the ocean creeping fairly far up river valleys though, especially the Paraguay and Amazon River, but also the Mississippi, St Lawrence, Mackenzie, Uruguay and Orinoco.
Greenland and the Arctic archipelago would likely have a similar oceanic climate to northern Europe.
Not sure how far into Brazil and the Great Plains the rains would reach. I suspect that Alberta and Saskatchewan would be fairly arid though, perhaps not full on desert, but at least hot-dry steppe or scrubland, similar to West Texas and New Mexico. It's worth noting that the Alberta Rockies are twice as close to the Hudson's Bay as the Peruvian Amazon is to the Atlantic.
You think it would completely destroy the Antarctic ice sheet, or just partially? There's no circumpolar current in the Arctic and warmer sea currents are able to get there, but Greenland still has ice sheets and at some periods of history, Fennoscandia and North America does too. It's still over 1000 miles from the Southern Ocean to the South Pole, and the warmer but still cool waters would only carry so much warmth, so far.
This is a tricky question because the state of the ice sheet (and any climate system) depends on its history. If the original state was South America and Antarctica connected by landmass, the ice sheet may have never been formed in the first place. If the connection occurs through a geological process starting from the current state, the whole process should be analyzed. If they are overlapped by a god-like intervention while keeping all the climate-based geographic features of both continents, well, I guess it can be modeled, but we get to the second problem. There would be a lot of major sudden changes that will trigger feedbacks with long term uncertainty.
First seasons would show a quick loss of ice mass in the Antarctic Peninsula (heat interchange with South America) and the west part of East Antarctica (Brazilian current reaching Queen Maud Land), but some gains deep inland due to increased moisture. Albedo would rapidly decrease in the area, especially due to the loss of sea ice, and the oceans would get a huge amount of fresh water, reducing salinity and impacting climate systems worldwide. This is already a mess. Let alone when sea level rise gets substantial. I agree on that a total loss of ice seems very unlikely.
Boston and Chicago will be at northern edge of tropical climate.
Boston being similar to between Havana and Miami and Chicago with larger diurnal range year round coldest month 75/55 and hottest month 93/77.
British Columbia spotted light as the new SoCal. Juneau, AK would have prolonged wet season until early in the summer and very quick dry season for a couple of weeks but everything else would be just like San Francisco especially those islands in the vicinity.
Eventually, population in North America goes highly concentrated along the Hudson Bay (Rankin Inlet, Nunavut is the biggest metro area).
To quote myself:
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackierudetsky
Realized that if the Americas were shifted south by 5, 10, or 20 degrees, Quebec would be where the Northeastern USA would be, just different parts of Quebec. (Also, looking at Google Maps, it's kinda weird how large parts of the Northeast are just 10 degrees south away from being frozen wasteland.)
So basically, if the Americas were moved 20 degrees south, the biggest cities in North America would be concentrated around Nunavut and Nord-du-Québec.
Last edited by jackierudetsky; 02-12-2023 at 06:49 AM..
Under this scenario, here are the latitudes of some major towns and cities:
Alert, NU, Canada: 62º30'N
Utqiagvik, AK, USA: 51º17'N
Anchorage, AK, USA: 41º13'N
Edmonton, AB, Canada: 33º32'N
Toronto, ON, Canada: 23º45'N
New York, NY, USA: 20º43'N
Los Angeles, CA, USA: 14º03'N
Havana, Cuba: 03º08'N
Mexico City, Mexico: 00º34'S
Tegucigalpa, Honduras: 05º54'S
Panama City, Panama: 11º01'S
Quito, Ecuador: 20º13'S
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