Deep Antarctic Waters Freshening, Losing Density, CSIRO Survey Finds - Reuters

[hatrack]

SINGAPORE, April 18 (Reuters) - Scientists studying the icy depths of the sea around Antarctica have detected changes in salinity that could have profound effects on the world's climate and ocean currents. The scientists returned to the southern Australian city of Hobart on Thursday after a one-month voyage studying the Southern Ocean to see how it is changing and what those changes might mean for global climate patterns.

Voyage leader Steve Rintoul said his team found that salty, dense water that sinks near the edge of Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean about 5 km (3 miles) down was becoming fresher and more buoyant.

So-called Antarctic bottom water helps power the great ocean conveyor belt, a system of currents spanning the Southern, Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans that shifts heat around the globe.

"The main reason we're paying attention to this is because it is one of the switches in the climate system and we need to know if we are about to flip that switch or not," said Rintoul of Australia's government-backed research arm the CSIRO. "If that freshening trend continues for long enough, eventually the water near Antarctica would be too light, too buoyant to sink and that limb of the global-scale circulation would shut down," he said on Friday.


EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP170649

[phantom power]

1. Hey, what could go wrong?

:rofl:

[XemaSab]

2. .

"...It's moving in the direction of an ultimate shutdown."

[Systematic Chaos]

5. In the voice of Iron Chef Bobby Flay from the Food Network:

"Ask yourself: are you ready for a Shutdown?"

:hurts:

[nashville_brook]

3. that's the set-up for the movie Day After Tomorrow

when the conveyor belt crashes, global warming tips over into global cooling. a chilling prospect, literally.

[soothsayer]

4. yup, and isn't it in gore's movie too?

[Delphinus]

6. Couple this with the story

on the methane release in the Arctic Seas and all one can say is: "Hold on tight!"

[truebrit71]

7. ..and disappearing Greenland glacial lakes...

...this is going to get interesting....much, MUCH sooner than anyone predicts...