The future of the ocean: Gulf stream blew a hole in global warming
MOSCOW, 26 Aug — RIA Novosti, Tatiana Pichugina. Since the nineteenth century oceanic heating in Western Europe weakened significantly. Scientists attribute this to climate change on the planet and paint a bleak scenario of the future. What threatens the disappearance of deep-water currents of the North Atlantic and what is the fate of the Gulf stream — in the material RIA Novosti.
Ten years ago, South Greenland found a stretch of water of the size of a European country, which, instead of, as the whole planet to warm up, cool down. It was called “hole in global warming”, “cold bubble” (cold blobs). In 2015 he broke a temperature record cold, although the planet as a whole year was the hottest.
Scientists have suggested that over the “cold bubble” accumulate atmospheric aerosols and intercept a portion of solar radiation. The hypothesis was not confirmed. Now “hole in global warming” is associated with a slowing of the North Atlantic current. The so-called part of the deep-sea pipeline that continues the Gulf stream, carrying heat to the Arctic.
Before I was very irritated by the headlines in the media that the Gulf stream will stop. From a strictly scientific point of view, this for — on the ocean surface, it creates wind. Something in it can change over time, but there is no indication that it will disappear in the next century.Nikolai Colonoscopic Institute for polar and marine research Alfred Wegener (Germany)
In relation to the North Atlantic current, which is often confused with the Gulf stream, such concerns are appropriate. This current is determined by the changes in salinity and water temperature (thermohaline circulation).
Warm salty water moving from South to North. Are cooled, become heavier and sink to a depth. There slowly turn around and begin the return journey that spans thousands of years. Through this mechanism, all the World’s oceans are gradually mixed.
How to break the cycle in the ocean
The global ocean conveyor in the North Atlantic ocean will stop if the water warms up or represnets.
This has already happened at the end of the last ice age. Then in Canada melt water of the glacier formed a huge lake Agassiz. About 8200 years ago, it very quickly turned into the ocean and lowers its salinity to such an extent that the water in the Labrador sea and the Norwegian sea where the pipeline backpedals, ceased to sink. From the North Atlantic current literally lost traction, it stopped. The heated water in the tropics did not arrive to the shores of Western Europe, Britain and the Scandinavian Peninsula, causing cooling.