Jumpstart Mars Terraforming by awakening volcano(es)

[edzieba]

Unscientific to display a graph that has a logarithmic scale that distorts visulal reality.

If plotting data onto log-lin graphs is 'unscientific' then we'd have to toss out the majority of scientific development for the last few centuries.

[whitelancer64]

It would be interesting to find out what factors caused the various global warming and cooling cycles before Mankind was relevant.  There might be a solution in what to do and what not to do.   

Assuming that is a genuine question, the correlation between CO2 and temperature is quite strong. Otherwise, the location of continental land masses and the effect of Milankovitch cycles is a factor.

Probably the biggest factor affecting the carbon cycle is the biosphere.

*snip*

The question is genuine.  I was aware OF the Milankovitch cycles from various ice and rock core samples, but didn't know the name.  Along these lines, has it been determined where the Earth is at along these cycles today?  This might help us determine which courses of action would be more effective.

*snip*

The biggest factors we know of for climate patterns that date back millennia, are related to the Sun, its level of activity, and how close we are to it (precessions in the Earth's orbit, which vary in long cycles over tens to hundreds of thousands of years), and the Earth's orbital inclination relative to the Sun.

Based on the Sun's level of activity, which has been decreasing for several decades and has been low for several solar cycles, and our current position in the Milankovitch cycle, we should be in a cooling period. However, this is not the case, we are warming at an increasing rate. This rate is strongly correlated to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

[stefan r]

The biggest factors we know of for climate patterns that date back millennia, are related to the Sun, its level of activity, and how close we are to it (precessions in the Earth's orbit, which vary in long cycles over tens to hundreds of thousands of years), and the Earth's orbital inclination relative to the Sun.

Based on the Sun's level of activity, which has been decreasing for several decades and has been low for several solar cycles, and our current position in the Milankovitch cycle, we should be in a cooling period. However, this is not the case, we are warming at an increasing rate. This rate is strongly correlated to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

On Mars the terraforming would throw the climate so far out of balance that there is no need to worry about long term effects.   The mirrors need to focus light to control week to week weather.  The heat released from delivered gas would be too much for anything alive to survive for a long time. 

The project calls for multiple tons per square meter .  Nitrogen is relatively scarce and therefore expensive.   We can cover the surface with heat exchange pipe at a small fraction of the cost/effort.   

[markbike528cbx]

Nukes are not likely to restart a volcano. 

Amchita Island was subjected to 3 nukes 80 kT, 1MT, 5 MT. 
They shook it up but created no major earthquakes or tsunamis.
and no volcanoes

" is a volcanic, tectonically unstable and uninhabited island "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amchitka

https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1028p/report.pdf

no Quaternary volcanism so nothing in the last 2 million years. So maybe not a great test for popping a volcano... :-)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40315843?typeAccessWorkflow=login

https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/what-happened-when-the-us-set-off-nuclear-weapons-in-one-of-the-most

[stefan r]

Unscientific to display a graph that has a logarithmic scale that distorts visulal reality. Also mars didn't start losing atmosphere 4 billion years ago, that started sometime later when magnetic field was lost.

There is nothing wrong with displaying a well labeled graph. 

[pwbaker2256]

All interesting.

Not a scientist but would seem to me....

Changing Mars climate will be challenging for sure. Assuming there is a process that works…..
Seems to me it may be harder to stop that process than to start.

.............................

[Paul451]

Unscientific to display a graph that has a logarithmic scale that distorts visulal reality.

If plotting data onto log-lin graphs is 'unscientific' then we'd have to toss out the majority of scientific development for the last few centuries.

It wasn't the log-lin scale that he was complaining about, but the "visual distortion".

Using a non-linear scale that still leaves the data plot-line in a non-linear curve (apparently exponential or geometric) is a terrible choice and should be mocked.

You use non-linear scales to visually linearise the data. The graph posted by RB was just bad, and it can't be used to support his argument.

[Don't get me wrong, his claim is probably correct: Mars' atmosphere was most likely lost over geological time-scales and therefore the lack of magnetic field isn't a concern for atmospheric loss on human civilisation timescales. But the graph doesn't show that. It doesn't really show anything relevant to the argument.]