Signs & Science: When the Seas Boil

Mission of the Messengers
Humans: Extinct & Extant

Among the catastrophic events that will occur when the world is about to end is the mention of the heating of the seas. Latest measurements and studies indicate that the temperature of the seas is indeed rising. Global warming experts have been warning of a drastic climate change, and some of the markers are beginning to manifest.

Qur’an

In Surah at-Takwir, a list of events are mentioned. Ayat 6 states that:

وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ

Sahih International: And when the seas are filled with flame

Pickthall: And when the seas rise,

Yusuf Ali: When the oceans boil over with a swell;

Shakir: And when the seas are set on fire,

Muhammad Sarwar: the oceans are brought to a boil,

Mohsin Khan: And when the seas shall become as blazing Fire or shall overflow;

Arberry: when the seas shall be set boiling,

Shades of Meaning in the Lexicon

According to Lane’s Lexicon, the root s-j-r basically means filled, but as it adds in the discussion, there is no way to understand this word unless it means filled with fire; or it means when the seas shall overflow; or shall meet together and become one sea…

Global Warming

Global warming is the gradual rise in temperature of the earth’s oceans and atmosphere over the years which can lead to potential climate change. Global warming markers are increasingly making their presence felt, such as:

Accelerating sea level rise and increased coastal flooding
Longer and more damaging wildfire seasons
More frequent and intense heat waves
Costly and growing health impacts
An increase in extreme weather events
Heavier precipitation and flooding
More severe droughts in some areas
Changing seasons
Melting ice
Destruction of coral reefs
Plant and animal range shifts

The Cryosphere

‘Frozen water is found in many different places on Earth. Snow blankets the ground at mid and high latitudes during winter. Sea ice and icebergs float in the chilly waters of polar oceans. Ice shelves fringe lands in Earth’s polar regions. Glaciers and larger ice sheets move slowly over land in polar regions. Glaciers are also found on high mountaintops around the world. The soils of polar regions, called permafrost, are filled with frozen water. Together, these different types of frozen water are known as the Earth’s cryosphere. Approximately three-quarters of the world’s fresh water is frozen in the cryosphere. Some parts of the cryosphere, such as snow and the ice on ponds and lakes in mid-latitude locations, are only around during winter months. Other parts of the cryosphere, such as glaciers and ice sheets, stay frozen year-round and, in fact, can stay that way for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. Some of the ice in the ice sheet that covers most of the continent of Antarctica has been there for nearly a million years.’

Glacial Melt

North Pole

There has been a dramatic decline in the sea-ice at the Arctic over the years. The following image of ESA demonstrates the gravity of the situation:

[http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/12/Autumn_sea-ice_thickness_from_CryoSat_2010_2013]

Arctic permafrost is melting, and massive methane releases have been recorded. Methane is a greenhouse gas which has a much higher capacity to retain heat as compared to carbon dioxide. Combined with loss of albedo and other factors, it has the potential to accelerate global warming to catastrophic levels within years. According to the Arctic News, ‘Continued warming in the Arctic threatens to trigger methane releases large enough to terminate civilization as we know it and to cause widespread and massive death and extinction.’

The danger is illustrated in this diagram:

[https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6524vk3h7Ll8hXZt2I1vTB5ODx_Oqf2y6yRe1GykFkPlnaiMe1WVqKro2_I96R2TpChr37uVUFnuxWdjDqQgWeh7tkhj_IzvfYMmCKKZFg8zbVYJ1wBBFoqzQVYMpVN6iB8A9TH7_vOM/s1600/Diagram+of+Doom+(white),+Sep+9,+2012.jpg]

South Pole

Satellite measurements reveal an alarming decrease in antarctic glaciers: ‘They have found that the loss of ice from West Antarctica between 2009 and 2012 caused a dip in the gravity field over the region… And, between 2011 and 2014, Antarctica as a whole has been shrinking in volume by 125 cubic kilometres a year.’

Copyright Helm et al., The Cryosphere, 2014
[http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/08/Antarctic_ice-sheet_change]

Sea Temperature

According to another ESA report titled Is Global Warming Hiding Underwater: ‘Satellite observations of global sea-surface temperature show that a 30-year upward trend has slowed down within the last 15 years. Climate scientists say this is not the end of global warming, but the result of a rearrangement in the energy flow of the climate system and, in particular, how the ocean stores heat… Scientists have speculated that one of the causes of this ‘plateau’ in sea-surface temperature could be a change in the exchange of ocean water between warm, surface waters and cold, deep waters below 700 m – as if the warming is ‘hiding’ underwater. Temperature measurements at this depth cover a relatively short period.But the warm water won’t hide below the surface forever: scientists believe that it may re-emerge later or affect other climate indicators, such as sea level or ocean circulation.’

Warming of the waters off both the east and west coast of U.S. have been reported in the recent years:

Accelerated warming of the continental shelf off northeast coast of the U.S. has been reported on June 15, 2015 in phys.org ‘A new study … shows that water temperatures in this continental shelf region have been trending upward, with unprecedented warming occurring over the last 13 years.

"The warming rate since 2002 is 15 times faster than from the previous 100 years,” … ’

Regarding the west coast of the U.S., Warmer Pacific Ocean could release millions of tons of seafloor methane was reported on December 9, 2014 in the same journal. ‘Researchers found that water off the coast of Washington is gradually warming at a depth of 500 meters, about a third of a mile down. That is the same depth where methane transforms from a solid to a gas. The research suggests that ocean warming could be triggering the release of a powerful greenhouse gas.

… This paper estimates that from 1970 to 2013, some 4 million metric tons of methane has been released from hydrate decomposition off Washington. … and 500 times the rate at which methane is naturally released from the seafloor.’

References

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/GOCE/GOCE_reveals_gravity_dip_from_ice_loss

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/CryoSat/Sea_ice

http://www.skepticalscience.com/antarctica-gaining-ice.htm

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2014/08/Antarctic_ice-sheet_change

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/12/Autumn_sea-ice_thickness_from_CryoSat_2010_2013

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Space_for_our_climate/Is_global_warming_hiding_underwater

http://phys.org/journals/journal-of-geophysical-research/

http://phys.org/news/2012-10-scientists-uncover-diversion-gulf-stream.html

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-continental-shelf-northeast-coast.html

http://phys.org/news/2014-12-warmer-pacific-ocean-millions-tons.html

http://phys.org/news/2011-07-russia-permafrost.html