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Laura Henry. Climate Change and the global conveyor belt. 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. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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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
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