Reuters.com brings you the latest news from around the world, covering breaking news in markets, business, politics, entertainment, technology, video and pictures. A 2016 study suggested that while a great deal of fresh water has been discharged from Greenland, it's difficult to track what happens to it because of eddies and currents. This system, which includes the Gulf Stream, plays a major role in maintaining the global climate, and its deterioration could have a dramatic impact. ", A 2015 study hypothesized that fresh water, which increased in the northern Atlantic by more than 4,500 cubic miles (19,000 km3) between 1961 and 1995, weakened the deep water formation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, particularly after 1975. The scientists hypothesized that this could explain why, in 2014, a specific patch in the middle of the North Atlantic was the coldest on record since 1880 while global temperatures everywhere else were increasing. After walking the boundries, his measurement showed the property was 8 feet above sea level. The thermohaline circulation plays a key role in determining the climate of different regions of the earth. What’s up Doc? There is, however, a time lag between those two climate change-related events, and US … But a new study finds the Gulf Stream go-slow will have a significant impact on planetary temperatures, but not in a chilled out way. Global warming can affect this by warming surface waters and melting ice that adds fresh water to the circulation, making the waters less saline; this freshening of the water can prevent the cold waters from sinking and thus alter ocean currents. The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean as the North Atlantic Current.The process of western intensification causes the Gulf … Global warming could potentially cause a thermohaline circulation shutdown and subsequent regional cooling, but because Earth will continue to warm as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, it would not produce another Ice Age. The bottom line is that the thermohaline circulation is a very complex system and scientists do not yet understand all the variables involved in how it functions. Another 2015 study that modeled a hypothetical slowdown or collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation concluded that a collapse could result in widespread cooling throughout the North Atlantic and Europe (though this would be somewhat mitigated by global warming), increased sea ice in the North Atlantic, changes in tropical precipitation patterns, stronger North Atlantic storms, reduced precipitation and river flow as well as reduced crop productivity in Europe. And even if the thermohaline circulation did shut down, winds would still likely drive the Gulf Stream; however, there would be less warm water from the tropics and the Gulf Stream could become cooler and not reach as far north. If it weren’t for the warm water of the Gulf Stream, E… Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, one of the study's authors, noted that if the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation were to totally collapse over the next few decades, it would change ocean circulation patterns, influence the food chain, and negatively impact fish populations. Because saltier colder water is denser and thus heavier, it drops deep into the ocean and moves along the depths until it can rise to the surface near the equator, usually in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Currently sea levels are lower on the U.S. east coast because waters east of the Gulf Stream, closer to Europe, are warmer and expand, so sea levels there are higher. The warm salty water is then carried northwards; it joins the Gulf Stream, a large powerful ocean current that is also driven by winds. Another 2015 study that modeled a hypothetical slowdown or collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation concluded that a collapse could result in widespread cooling throughout the North Atlantic and Europe (though this would be somewhat mitigated by global warming), increased sea ice in the North Atlantic, changes in tropical precipitation patterns, stronger North Atlantic storms, reduced precipitation and river flow as well as reduced crop productivity in Europe. And experts are now warning climate change could cause… Sea levels are rising fast at Assateague in MD and VA. Sea levels would be affected as well. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no If climate change could have such an effect, the current would not be entering through the Gulf of Mexico, but would otherwise cross around the Gulf of Mexico IF it weren’t for the largest Caribbean islands. IPCC report: Britain could cool if Gulf Stream slows. The thermohaline circulation plays a key role in determining the climate of different regions of the earth. “But if it happened, it would be ten times less dramatic and important than what happened during the glacial period when it caused a 10˚C temperature change.”, “We are monitoring the strength of deep water going south,” he said. But under human-induced climate change, the Gulf Stream is predicted to get weaker — it will flow more slowly and carry less water. Winter would set in for the eastern half of North America and all of Europe and Siberia, and never go away. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, part of the thermohaline circulation which includes the Gulf Stream, is the ocean circulation system that carries heat north from the tropics and Southern Hemisphere until it loses it in the northern North Atlantic, Nordic and Labrador Seas, which leads to the deep sinking of the colder waters. Nov. 19, 2001. I had read over ten years ago that the the Gulf Stream was already measurably slower owing to the effects described here, and that this was a possible cause of increasing snow storms in Britain among other things, so I was surprised to see that here the slowing is presented as a possible future scenario. In fact, sea levels along the coast and the Gulf of Mexico are rising faster than in any other part of the U.S, and some data suggests that it is because the Gulf Stream has already begun to slow down. But a consensus has emerged that climate change will lead to a slower Gulf Stream system in the future, as melting ice sheets in Greenland disrupt the system with discharges of cold fresh water. 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