Do you know, rapid climate change may be related to how vigorously ocean currents move heat between low and high latitudes? The concept that oceans and climate are linked in an intricate rhythm, are gradually getting bolstered by new scientific findings. It was at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Candace Major, an investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution presented this research.
The glacial climate in the North Atlantic region has been characterized by abrupt climate swings between cold, or stadial, conditions and relatively warm or interstadial conditions. Changes in the strength of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, most likely causes the stadial-interstadial transitions. The global ocean circulation system, Thermohaline circulation, is driven by differences in the density of sea water, which is controlled by temperature (thermal) and salinity (haline).
Following an iceberg outburst during the last deglaciation, when the rate of the Atlantic Ocean’s north-south overturning circulation slowed dramatically, the climate in the North Atlantic region became colder — major s findings build on research reported in 2004 suggests. And the climate warmed abruptly when the rate of the ocean’s overturning circulation subsequently accelerated.