Study shows apocalyptic event could only be years away for Earth

By: Maria Mercedes Galuppo, Buzz60

If you thought the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" was an unrealistic scenario, you might want to think again.

A new study suggests that in the not-so-far future, ocean instability could plunge the northern hemisphere into an actual ice age.

Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego say that many current climate models, may be drastically underestimating the melting of ice at the North Pole.

It claims there's a bias in most of them that exaggerates the stability of a weather pattern that would keep the ice from melting faster and therefore keeps the oceans fairly stable.

But it's study predicts levels of carbon dioxide will double by 2100, causing Arctic and Greenland ice to melt faster and increase the amount of freshwater into our oceans.

Once that happens, researchers say it would take just 300 years for the ocean's currents to stop circulating and potentially set off an ice age, as Arctic sea ice spreads from the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Scientists are currently evaluating the new research.