EARTHSS 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Antarctic Intermediate Water, Thermohaline Circulation, Ocean Current

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Earth System Science
• Course: EARTHSS 3
• Professor: professor

Document Summary

Deep ocean circulation: be able to describe and explain how, where, and why deep water masses and intermediate water masses form. Deep ocean circulation result in small density differences in water masses called thermohaline circulation b/c density affected by temperature and salinity. Water from different locations are called water masses and have characteristic temperatures and salinities. Warm water molecule are moved far apart while cold water molecule are tightly packed together. Very cold but fresher water: antarctic intermediate water, north pacific intermediate water. The extra co2 we are producing is also dissolving in surface ocean waters and sinking to form deep waters helps to store carbon in oceans. More melting of land ice: be able to describe and explain how the thermohaline circulation can change over time and the effects of this. Deep water formation drives deep ocean (thermohaline) circulation. Warm surface water not pulled so far north so temp fall around north atlantic ocean.