Palm Trees on Mullaghmore Head

The climate is mild enough in North West Ireland for palm trees to grow because of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation which transports heat from the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics to the North Atlantic. The photo below is being used as an illustration in a publication of the U.S. Geological Survey on the subject of rapid climate change. It is included as figure 1.7 (with permission) in chapter one (SAP 3.4.1) written by Peter Clark, Andrew Weaver, Ed Brook, Edward Cook, Tom Delworth, and Konrad Steffen. The photo was made on January 15, 2004 at Mullaghmore Head in County Sligo, Ireland.

The final version of the paper on climate change is online now at http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-4/final-report/ .

Next photo of Mullaghmore Head. Previous photo of Mullaghmore Head.

Palm Trees on Mullaghmore Head, Sligo, Ireland. A group of about 9 or 10 palm trees are growing behind a stone wall at a bend of the road next to the Atlantic Ocean. The mountains of County Donegal are barely visible on the horizon.

We also have photos of Ireland from April and May 2007 and photos of Ireland from July 2005 and more photos of Ireland from January 2004 .

We have some single subject photo index pages:

An interesting paper on the Atlantic meridonal overturning circulation:

Physical Sciences - Environmental Sciences:
    * Matthias Hofmann
    * and Stefan Rahmstorf
Tipping Elements in Earth Systems Special Feature: On the stability of the 
Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
PNAS published online before print November 6, 2009, 
doi:10.1073/pnas.0909146106

PDF copy of the paper on the stability of the Atlantic meridonal overturning circulation is at http://academics.eckerd.edu/instructor/hastindw/MS1410-001_FA08/handouts/BrydenTHC05.pdf.

Palm Trees Growing in Ireland