CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE GLOBAL CONVEYOR BELT

Laura Henry

What is the Global Conveyor Belt?

Thermohaline Temperature Salinity

Deep-ocean current Downwelling

Occurs at poles Upwelling

Occurs at equator Continuous cycle

Climate and the Global Conveyor Belt Ocean water

transfers sun’s energy

Regulates/normalizes Earth’s temperature

Begins in North Atlantic

Moves heat towards poles

Takes 1,000 years to complete

Early Connections to Climate Change Wallace Broecker, 1984 Carbon levels in polar

ice measured Revealed patter of high

carbon levels just before ice age

Rise in atmospheric temperature connected to glacial periods

Later Research

Studies of forams from glacial periods

Forams found at intermediate ocean levels rather than in the deep sea

Forams lack O^16 molecules

Evidence that global warming is directly followed by ice age

Global Warming’s affect on the belt Melting of ice caps

diluting salt water Water in the poles

becoming less dense Disrupting the process of

downwelling

Global warming in the past

Henrich Events Sheets of ice break off glaciers Melt into Atlantic Release ice-rafted debris

Dansgaard-Oescher Events (D-C) Freshwater introduced into North

Atlantic Antarctic deep water released CO2 transferred to atmosphere

Implications of a conveyor belt shut-down Tropic zones would experience severe heat waves Moderate zones thrust into ice-age Inhabitable areas cut down Possibly no way to reverse a shut-down

Too soon to know for sure Not enough research to be certain RAPID tests inconclusive Nothing of this scale has occurred before More scientific evidence in favor of a conveyor belt

shut down than against it

???

Sourceshttp://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/currents/06conveyor.htmlhttp://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/ocean-current3.htmhttp://northwestpassage.bangor.ac.uk/diary.phphttp://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/student/tinsley1/webpage1.htmlhttp://montessorimuddle.org/tag/paleontology/http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/groups/coral-lab/faq/http://scijinks.nasa.gov/atmosphere-formationhttp://www.webquest.hawaii.edu/kahihi/sciencedictionary/C/climatezone.phphttp://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/polar/impact.htmlhttp://www.esr.org/outreach/polar/what/what.html