The Thermohaline Circulation and Climate Change

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The Thermohaline Circulation and Climate Change

• Michael P. Erb

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The Thermohaline Circulation
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Younger Dryas
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Glacial Lake Agassiz
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Simulated Tropical Response to a Substantial
Weakening of the Atlantic Thermohaline
Circulation Zhang Delworth 2005 Journal of
ClimateClimate Model Experiment an extra
freshwater forcing of 0.6 Sv (1 Sv 106 m3s-1)
is uniformly distributed over the North Atlantic
for 60 years
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Simulated Tropical Response to a Substantial
Weakening of the Atlantic Thermohaline
Circulation Zhang Delworth 2005 Journal of
ClimateClimate Model Experiment an extra
freshwater forcing of 0.6 Sv (1 Sv 106 m3s-1)
is uniformly distributed over the North Atlantic
for 60 years
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Plate Tectonics can affect the Thermohaline
Circulation, too.
Around 3 million years ago the Isthmus of Panama
formed, cutting off the mixing of water between
the Atlantic and Pacific and forcing ocean
circulations to reorganize.
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Professional Papers

• Haug, G. H., and R. Tiedemann, 1998. Effect of
  the formation of the Isthmus of Panama on
  Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation. Nature,
  393, 673-676.
• Teller, J. T., D. W. Leverington, and J. D. Mann,
  2002. Freshwater outbursts to the oceans from
  glacial Lake Agassiz and their role in climate
  change during the last deglaciation. Quaternary
  Science Reviews, 21, 879-887.
• Weaver, A. J., O. A. Saenko, P. U. Clark, and A.
  X. Mitrovika, 2003. Meltwater Pulso 1A from
  Antarctica as a Trigger of the Bolling-Allerod
  Warm Interval. Science, 299, 1709-1713.
• Zhang, R., and T. L. Delworth, 2005. Simulated
  Tropical Response to a Substantial Weakening of
  the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation. Journal
  of Climate, 18, 1853-1860.