{"id":341152,"date":"2025-06-23T14:41:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=341152"},"modified":"2025-06-23T14:41:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:11:05","slug":"atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation-amoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation-amoc\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News: <\/strong>A new study finds that the Europe faces deep winter freeze if the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapses.<\/p>\n<h2>About Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_341158\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-341158\" style=\"width: 344px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-341158\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-The-Economist-241x300.png?resize=344%2C428&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"344\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-The-Economist.png?resize=241%2C300&amp;ssl=1 241w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-The-Economist.png?w=647&amp;ssl=1 647w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 344px) 100vw, 344px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-341158\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; NOAA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>The AMOC is a <strong>system of ocean currents<\/strong> that circulates water <strong>within the Atlantic Ocean<\/strong>, bringing <strong>warm water north and cold water south.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mechanism:<\/strong> The circulation process begins as <strong>warm water <\/strong>near the surface moves <strong>toward the poles<\/strong> (such as the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic), where it cools and forms sea ice.\n<ul>\n<li>As this ice forms, <strong>salt is left behind<\/strong> in the ocean water. Due to the large amount of salt in the water, it becomes <strong>denser<\/strong>, sinks down, and is <strong>carried southwards<\/strong> in the depths below.<\/li>\n<li>Eventually, the water gets <strong>pulled back up towards the surface and warms up<\/strong> in a process called upwelling, <strong>completing the cycle<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Importance of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>AMOC aids in <strong>distributing heat and energy<\/strong> around the earth <strong>(heat budget).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Western Europe\u2019s climate<\/strong> is less harsh even in winters because of AMOC (Gulf Stream, North Atlantic Drift).<\/li>\n<li>It acts as a <strong>carbon sink<\/strong> by absorbing and storing atmospheric carbon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Weakening of AMOC<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It takes an estimated 1,000 years for a parcel (any given cubic meter) of water to complete its journey along the belt.<\/li>\n<li>However, climate models suggest that the <strong>AMOC will weaken<\/strong> over the 21st Century as <strong>greenhouse gases increase<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>This is because as the atmosphere warms, the surface ocean beneath it retains more of its heat.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile increases in rainfall and ice melt mean it gets fresher too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>All these changes make the ocean <strong>water lighter<\/strong> and so <strong>reduce the sinking<\/strong> in the \u2018<strong>conveyor belt\u2019<\/strong>, leading to a weaker AMOC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Any substantial weakening of the AMOC would cause<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>further <strong>decrease in marine productivity<\/strong> in the North Atlantic (less sinking will lead to less mixing of water),<\/li>\n<li><strong>more storms<\/strong> in Northern Europe<\/li>\n<li><strong>less<\/strong> Sahelian summer rainfall and <strong>South Asian summer rainfall<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>a <strong>reduced<\/strong> number of <strong>tropical cyclones<\/strong> in the Atlantic<\/li>\n<li>an <strong>increase in regional sea level<\/strong> along the northeast coast of North America.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: A new study finds that the Europe faces deep winter freeze if the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapses. About Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) The AMOC is a system of ocean currents that circulates water within the Atlantic Ocean, bringing warm water north and cold water south. Mechanism: The circulation process begins as&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation-amoc\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,11209,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-341152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-geography-in-news","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}