Jun 30, 2025 03:30 PM
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-mysteriou...e-know-why
EXCERPTS: Over the last decade, Earth's oceans have been warming at unprecedented rates, yet one mysterious blob of water, just south of Greenland, has defied this trend. It has stubbornly remained colder than its surrounding waters for over a century now. "People have been asking why this cold spot exists," says University of California Riverside climate scientist Wei Liu.
[...] "If you look at the observations and compare them with all the simulations, only the weakened-AMOC scenario reproduces the cooling in this one region," explains Li. If the AMOC stalls, it will disrupt monsoon seasons in the tropics, and North America and Europe will experience even harsher winters. The knock-on effects will severely impact entire ecosystems and global food security.
[...] The AMOC circulates water vertically as well as latitudinally. The blue blob of cooling in the North Atlantic betrays the system's slowing. ... All up, the researchers calculated AMOC has slowed from -1.01 to -2.97 million cubic meters of water per second between 1900 to 2005.
"This work shows the AMOC has been weakening for more than a century, and that trend is likely to continue if greenhouse gases keep rising," Li concludes... (MORE - missing details)
PAPER: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02403-0
EXCERPTS: Over the last decade, Earth's oceans have been warming at unprecedented rates, yet one mysterious blob of water, just south of Greenland, has defied this trend. It has stubbornly remained colder than its surrounding waters for over a century now. "People have been asking why this cold spot exists," says University of California Riverside climate scientist Wei Liu.
[...] "If you look at the observations and compare them with all the simulations, only the weakened-AMOC scenario reproduces the cooling in this one region," explains Li. If the AMOC stalls, it will disrupt monsoon seasons in the tropics, and North America and Europe will experience even harsher winters. The knock-on effects will severely impact entire ecosystems and global food security.
[...] The AMOC circulates water vertically as well as latitudinally. The blue blob of cooling in the North Atlantic betrays the system's slowing. ... All up, the researchers calculated AMOC has slowed from -1.01 to -2.97 million cubic meters of water per second between 1900 to 2005.
"This work shows the AMOC has been weakening for more than a century, and that trend is likely to continue if greenhouse gases keep rising," Li concludes... (MORE - missing details)
PAPER: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02403-0