Melting Glacier
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Despite what the government and car manufacturers would
like you to believe, the fact is that global warming is really
here. One thing that will slow down the Gulf Stream, the
powerful ocean current that brings warm water (and
weather) to the UK and the rest of Europe, is dilution of the
ocean?s salt level, due to an influx of freshwater from melting
glaciers and ice sheets. The Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution in Massachusetts,which is keeping an eye on this
phenomenon, says that large regions of the North Atlantic
Ocean have been growing fresher since the late 1960s, due
to melting glaciers and increased precipitation, both
associated with greenhouse warming. Salinity records
show that large pulses of extra sea ice and fresh water from
the Arctic have flowed into the North Atlantic.
In a recent paper published in Science magazine, Ruth Curry
of Woods Hole, along with Cecilie Mauritzen of the Norwegian
Meteorological Institute, figured out for the first exactly time
how much additional fresh water has flowed into the North
Atlantic Ocean, how fast it entered the Atlantic circulation,
and where that fresh water was stored in frozen form in the
past.
The team says the most striking event in their study occurred
in the early 1970s and is known as the ?Great Salinity
Anomaly.? During the late 1960s, a large amount of fresh
water suddenly entered the Nordic Seas and moved quickly
southward.
Excessive amounts of freshwater will alter the ocean density
that drives a portion of the ocean circulation system,
diminishing the amount of heat that is transported northward.
This is already happening. Curry says, ?The Greenland ice
sheet represents a wild card. There is an enormous amount of
freshwater tied up there, which, as it melts, will affect the
headwaters of the ocean conveyor.?
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private,
independent marine research organization located in
Falmouth, Massachusetts. Although WHOI supplies
information to the government, it is not a government
agency, so it is not afraid to report the truth. Its primary
mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with
Earth.
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day after tomorrow? Is the coming
global superstorm something that really will happen? And
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incredible
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