If circulation of deep waters in the Atlantic stops or slows due to climate change, it could cause cooling in northern North America and Europe – a scenario that has occurred during past cold glacial periods.
If circulation of deep waters in the Atlantic stops or slows due to climate change, it could cause cooling in northern North America and Europe – a scenario that has occurred during past cold glacial periods.
Now, a Rutgers coauthored study suggests that short-term disruptions of deep ocean circulation occurred during warm interglacial periods in the last 450,000 years, and may happen again.
Ironically, melting of the polar ice sheet in the Arctic region in a warmer world, resulting in more fresh water entering the ocean and altering circulation, might have caused previous coolings. Still, a rapid deep freeze like in the 2004 movie “The Day After Tomorrow” is highly unlikely.
The study, published in the journal Science and led by scientists at the University of Bergen in Norway, follows a 2014 study on the same topic.
Read more at Rutgers University
Image: The warm North Atlantic Current - the northernmost part of the Gulf Stream - flows into the Greenland Sea. It becomes progressively colder and saltier due to heat loss to the air, eventually sinking and forming the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation - a mass of deep, cold water that flows southward. Melting of the polar ice sheet in the Arctic region would result in more fresh water entering the ocean and disrupting that circulation pattern, potentially causing cooling in northern areas of Europe and North America. (Yair Rosenthal/Rutgers University-New Brunswick)
