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“The answer, we believe, is chat until a million years ago, the North Pole was not in that landlocked Arctic Ocean at all, but in the middle of the open Pacific
by fooblitzky 7y ago
“The answer, we believe, is chat until a million years ago, the North Pole was not in that landlocked Arctic Ocean at all, but in the middle of the open Pacific, where there was no land on which snow and ice could accumulate, and ocean currents dissipated the cold."
Can anyone explain this bit to me? Even if the magnetic pole was in the middle of the pacific, wouldn't snow and ice still accumulate at the geographic poles, because that's where the sun is weakest/absent for months?
- thrav 7y agoI think the idea is that the position of the earth relative to the sun would’ve moved with the pole movement, right? As in, “the middle of pacific” would’ve been the top of the world. Not sure if they gave any indication of when the pacific was thought to be the North Pole, but the line of hotspot created underwater mountains from the Siberian traps to Hawaii certainly support a huge amount of movement of the surface of the planet around the core. It doesn’t feel that far fetched, depending on suggested time frame. I just traced a parallel line (matching the Siberia to Hawaii one) from the North Pole and it does indeed land out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Incredible stuff.
- fooblitzky 7y agoAh OK - thanks for explaining. I wasn't thinking about the movement of tectonic plates on that scale.