1995: An Important Inflection Point in Recent Geophysical History

in underwater seismic activity and global temperatures
In a 2016 paper titled The Correlation of Seismic Activity and recent Global warming, I established the link between the seismic activity along the mid-ocean ridges and global temperatures. Rationale: More earthquakes = more geothermal heat release.
Well established in the literature that geothermal heating of ocean bottom intensifies the thermohaline circulation.
Net effect is to transport more heat into the Arctic. Transporting more heat into the Arctic kicks off a sequence of events that amplify warming in the Arctic.
That cascading of effects leads us to conclude that much of the recent warming is caused by this thermohaline intensification.
The sudden jump in temperatures occurred in 1997, 2 years after there was a corresponding jump in mid ocean seismic activity.
We tie in the 1995 jump in mid ocean seismic activity with a number of other geophysical processes.

Spreading Zones would cause a concomitant rise in global temperatures. The mechanism for this is as follows: Increased geothermal flux from the Mid-Ocean Spreading Zones destabilizes the bottom waters, causing the ocean’s overturning (i.e., thermohaline) circulation to intensify, transporting more heat into the Arctic. This would, in turn, increase melting of snow and ice, lowering the Arctic’s albedo, and trigger a positive feedback known as the “Arctic Amplification.” Here is a flowchart of that process:

activity, a proxy for geothermal heat release.

to include seismology, marine geology, oceanography, climatology, glaciology, and geodesy, reveals that a number of geophysical systems saw significant change commencing in 1995

mid-ocean seismic activity.
b) A lagged (two-year) increase in global temperatures.
c) A rapid shift of the AMO from negative to positive.
d) A punctuated increase in North Atlantic hurricanes and North Atlantic ACE.
e) A significant change in the dynamics and variability of the NHSM and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation.
f) A rapid strengthening of the AMOC.
g) Sudden changes in the spring and fall Arctic temperatures, followed by a large jump in winter temperatures.
h) Sharp sea ice declines in the Arctic and sub-Arctic.
i) Accelerated ice loss for the Greenland Ice Sheet.
j) An abrupt decline in cloud cover over Greenland during the summer months.
k) Sudden changes in the rate of movement of the northern dip pole.
l) Rapid directional drift in the earth’s geographic (“true”) North Pole

flux along the globe’s mid-ocean spreading zones. This heightened flux intensified the thermohaline circulation, resulting in ATL and a strengthening of the AMOC. This gave rise to higher Arctic and North Atlantic SST. These higher SST were expressed as a shift of the AMO from a negative to a positive phase, creating an environment that was conducive to an increased frequency of North Atlantic hurricanes, a significant jump in ACE, stronger monsoons, and amplified El Niño episodes. These changes initiated a diminution of Arctic Sea ice, reduced cloud cover in the Greenland sector, and rising Arctic temperatures in the fall, spring and winter seasons.

Ice Sheet
Stefan Hofer1,*, Andrew J. Tedstone1, Xavier Fettweis2 and Jonathan L. Bamber1
Science Advances 28 Jun 2017: Vol. 3, no. 6, e1700584 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700584

breakup dates and ice-free days 1979-2015 for Western Hudson Bay, showing that the earliest freeze-up dates since 1979 (top panel) came on 6 November, Day 310 (in 1991 and 1993).