NAME : Hoàng Mai Trung

CLASS : K53APM
ID : K175905218022

REPORT
The Younger Dryas was a major and abrupt change of the world
climate which happened from roughly 12,900 to around 11,700 before
present time (BP). This means that the event took place about 13,000
years ago and lasted for about 1,300 years. The temperatures dropped
massively entering a near-glacial period where it was cold and windy, and
this is what is known as the Younger Dryas. This happened almost
immediately after there was an increase of temperatures after the previous
glacial period (14,500 years ago) leading to sudden warming that in turn
put an end to the Ice Age period which had lasted for approximately
100,000 years

The warming led to the melting of massive ice deposits in North

America and Europe and a climatic maximum called the “Boiling-Allerød”
was attained. The conditions, however, changed again soon after entering
the Younger Dryas period that ended after 1,300 years when the climate
became warm again with Greenland recording a 10°C temperature
increase in a decade. This period got its name from Dryas Acropetal. The
Younger Dryas event was not like any normal climate change as therefore
was bound to have impacts on the world. It is said that temperature
fluctuations not only occurred before and after but also during the
phenomenon. In England, the glaciers started to form which was caused by
extremely low temperatures while in Holland the temperatures were below
-20°C when the winter season came. Of all regions affected by the Younger
Dryas, in Greenland, the effects were felt the most with the ice cores
recording a temperature drop of 15°C. The trees were also affected in most
of Europe and alpines and tundra were dominant after the trees retreated.

Scientists suggest that the period led to the extinction of mammals

like the mammoth and the disappearance of the people of Clovis in North
America. An explanation has been put forward that the cooling was caused
by a cosmic impact which left a lot of debris that cooled the climate fast and
in turn eliminate certain species including the Clovis to whom, the
conditions were too extreme. This period is very important to scientists
when it comes to research about global warming.

Global climate change is associated with significant changes in long-term

weather characteristics and short-term weather extremes in different regions.
The world is becoming warmer overall, with increases in temperature being
greatest over land and at high northern latitudes, and least over the Southern
Ocean and northern North Atlantic. Snow-cover area is contracting and sea and
mountain ice shrinking. Precipitation has increased in many regions at higher
latitudes, while decreases have been observed in most subtropical land regions.
These trends are expected to continue and intensify into the foreseeable future.
While flooding rains are expected to become more common at higher latitudes,
many areas that are currently semiarid are projected to experience more
prolonged periods of drought. Future tropical cyclones are likely to become more
intense, while extratropical storm tracks are projected to move toward the poles,
changing wind, precipitation, and temperature patterns.

Jack Hall, an American paleoclimatologist, and his colleagues Frank and

Jason, drill for ice-core samples in the Larsen Ice Shelf for the NOAA, when the
shelf breaks apart. Professor Terry Rapson, an oceanographer of the Hedland
Centre in Scotland befriends Jack over his views of an inevitable climate shift.
When several buoys in the Atlantic Ocean show a severe ocean temperature
drop, Rapson concludes Jack's theories are correct. Jack's and Rapson's teams,
along with NASA meteorologist Janet Tokada , build a forecast model based on
Jack's research.

A massive storm system develops in the northern hemisphere, splitting into

three gigantic hurricane-like superstorms above Canada, Scotland, and Siberia.
The storms pull frozen air from the upper troposphere into their center, flash-
freezing anything caught in their eyes with temperatures below −150 degrees
Fahrenheit (−101 degrees Celsius). Meanwhile, the weather worsens across the
world; Tokyo is struck by a giant hail storm, sea levels in Nova Scotia rise 25 feet
(7 meters) in seconds, and Los Angeles is devastated by a tornado outbreak.

Jack’s statements regarding the plausibility of an imminent thermohaline

shutdown due to global warming fly in the face of current scientific
understanding. As the world continues to warm, and the Greenland ice sheet
continues to melt, the North Atlantic circulation will probably slow down due to
the added freshwater. The resulting cooling influence on parts of Europe will
probably still be overwhelmed by warming due to greenhouse gases. However, a
complete shutdown of North Atlantic deep-water formation is extremely unlikely
within this century.

Nevertheless, The Day After Tomorrow goes on to depict a complete

shutdown of Atlantic thermohaline circulation in a matter of days, followed by a
sudden descent into a global ice age that is spurred by physically impossible
meteorological phenomena.

The ice age in The Day After Tomorrow has a more outlandish origin.
Following the thermohaline shutdown, a network of massive hurricane-shaped
snowstorms, covering entire continents, deposits enough snow to reflect sunlight
and create an ice age in a matter of days. Jack’s friend Terry Rapson, a
climatologist from the UK, explains that cold air from the top of the troposphere
is descending so quickly in the eye of each storm that it does not warm up as
expected. He estimates that the air must be -150°F (approximately -100°C) or
colder.

There are two main problems with this description of the storm. Firstly, the
tropopause (the highest and coldest part of the troposphere) averages -60°C, and
nowhere does it reach -100°C. Secondly, the eye of a hurricane – and presumably
of the hurricane-shaped snowstorms – has the lowest pressure of anywhere in
the storm. This fundamental characteristic indicates that air should be rising in
the eye of each snowstorm, not sinking down from the tropopause.

Later in the film, NASA scientist Janet Tokada is monitoring the storms
using satellite data. She notes that temperature is decreasing within the storm “at
a rate of 10 degrees per second”. Whether the measurement is in Fahrenheit or
Celsius, this rate of change is implausible. In under a minute (which is likely less
time than the satellite reading takes) the air would reach absolute zero, a
hypothetical temperature at which all motion stops.