Re: The Western Interior Seaway (and computers)

[jrc <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Bigelow" <bigelowp@juno.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 6:21 AM
Subject: The Western Interior Seaway (and computers)


> There is nothing presently in existence that is an analog to the WIS.

Hudson Bay is probably the closest, and that's not close.

> With such a long geographic temperature gradient, we really don't know
> how the currents behaved on a macro-level, leave alone on a local level,

See Slingerland et al's work.

> Water depth in the WIS (which was shallow) complicates our
> understanding somewhat, because most of our existing models of
> large-scale oceanic circulation assume deeper water in order to work
> correctly.

If I remember correctly, water depth was taken into account in Slingerland's 
work.  After all, one of its intended purposes was to approximately quantify 
differential sediment transport in the WIS.

> If the WIS was ever computer modeled for a point in time (what a
> nightmarish project that would be!),

It has been, and I suspec that it was.

> existing climate/ocean current algorithms may not be optimum for the job

I'm prone to agree with that.   :-)

> and the software may need to be patched or even rewritten from scratch.

Why?

> And the dataset would have to
> include the whole Earth, because when it comes to the
> hydrosphere/atmosphere, the WIS system was connected to and dependant on
> all other points on the Earth (flashback to Jeff Goldblum using the
> "Butterfly Effect" as a pickup line in the movie JP).

Not really.  Depends upon whether you want your output to be more precise 
than your input (though not more correct.....)

>  The success of  such a project would hinge on obtaining reliable data.

I'd agree with that as well.