Sorry. Time zone differences.
Dave Stringer – thanks for the response. It wasn’t all that hard to attempt imparting knowledge, rather than just patronising buzzwords, was it?
I agree with your comments about the geothermal gradient. As you point out, deep sea temperatures never get below the freezing point of the water at that depth, and unfrozen water can exist beneath 3000 meters or so of ice.
No wondrous CO2 greenhouse effect needed.
As to your comment about the conveyor belt transporting cold water from the Poles to the Tropics, may I suggest that this mechanism has significant flaws in explaining the similar temperature profile in bodies of water effectively isolated from cold Polar water – both fresh and saline. Time to invoke magic, I suppose.
in any case, may I thank you for pointing out that the surface of the Earth occupies a point between the white heat of the core, and the approximately 4K of outer space. Once again, no wondrous greenhouse effect necessary.
You might care to explain why the water at a depth of 1.5 km in Lake Baikal is around 4C, and the rock at the same depth is around 50C. The 4C temperature is reached at about 300 m, and remains more or less constant. It’s easily explained.
You are on the right track. Obviously, behaviour of fresh water is somewhat different to that of saline water, but you will find that once again, basic physics without the influence of CO2 is all that is needed.
It’s fairly obvious that many people do not realise that the crustal depth is variable, probably ranging between 3 km and 70 km (according to the USGS). The impact of this is that the slope of the geothermal gradient is of course quite variable, assuming the underlying mantle temperature remains relatively constant at the measuring point.
This needs to be taken into account when assassin the surface temperature impacts of isostatic rebound effects. Up or down? How fast? And so on.
Once again, thank you for attempting to explain why deep water does not freeze, and why unfrozen water may be found beneath 3000 meters of ice cap.
If you had tried just a little harder, and provided just a little bit more explanation, I would have congratulated you. As it is . . .
Live well and prosper,
Mike Flynn.
