The Great Ocean Conveyor - The Achilles Heel of the climate system?
The global ocean is not a static pond, but a body in constant motion. Winds blow across its surface, generating waves and currents, while the pull of gravity gently sloshes it back and forth in a lunar rhythm of tides. But beneath these familiar surficial motions lies an enigmatic process which has profound implications for climate: the Great Ocean Conveyor (also called the thermohaline circulation). The Conveyor is one of the great unknowns in humanity's unintentional climate change experiment.
Read more:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/Science/Conveyor.asp
See how it works in animation video:
http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/viewArticle.do?id=10046
scroll down to the bottom. Sidebar on the right.
Are We on the Brink of a 'New Little Ice Age?'
By Terrence Joyce, Senior Scientist, Physical Oceanography andLloyd Keigwin, Senior Scientist, Geology & GeophysicsWhen most of us think about Ice Ages, we imagine a slow transition into a colder climate on long time scales. Indeed, studies of the past million years indicate a repeatable cycle of Earth’s climate going from warm periods (“interglacial”, as we are experiencing now) to glacial conditions.
North Atlantic Waters Become Steadily Less Salty
studies by Dickson et al. (Nature, 2002),
indicate that over the past 40 years, waters have become steadily less salty in the major North Atlantic Ocean regions where cold, salty water now sinks. Fresher water is less dense and does not sink as readily, which could result in a slowdown of the Ocean Conveyor.
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