If Atlantic Ocean currents collapse due to melting ice sheets, researchers predict there will be huge shifts in tropical monsoon systems — and the effects could be irreversible for at least 100 years.
Atlantic Ocean currents that carry heat to the Northern Hemisphere could be grinding to a halt due to climate change. And if the vital currents do slump, tropical monsoon systems would be thrown into chaos for at least a century, a new study suggests.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a huge conveyor belt of ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream, that pumps heat and salt from the South Atlantic to the North Atlantic. “I like to think of it as a sort of ventilator,” study lead author Maya Ben-Yami, a climate researcher specializing in climatic tipping points at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, told Live Science. “Part of the reason that we’re worried about the collapse of the AMOC is because it has such a huge impact on the sort of heat transport within the Earth system.”
Global warming threatens the AMOC because it is melting glaciers and ice sheets, which then ooze fresh water into the North Atlantic. This dilutes the salinity of the top layers of water and prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the ocean, where they would normally drive the circulation back south.
