For subscribers
'Conveyor belt' of currents weakening as seas warm
Studies show Atlantic's crucial Amoc system has slowed, and collapse could signal disaster
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The Apusiajik glacier on the south-eastern shore of Greenland. The rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet has been dumping huge amounts of freshwater into the far North Atlantic, reducing the amount of cold, salty water sinking to the depths, thereby slowing the circulation of surface and deep water currents.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
While most may think of oceans as cold, dark places below the surface, they do in fact soak up and store about 90 per cent of the heat created by man-made global warming. Without them, we are toast.
The oceans shift heat around the globe via a vast conveyor belt of currents that move across different ocean basins. Several cold water currents move along the ocean floor for thousands of kilometres before being drawn to the surface in warmer climes.
