What is the Gulf Stream?

June 15, 2007 · Filed Under termninology · Comment 

A Part of the ‘Global Ocean Conveyor Belt’, a series of giant ocean currents that flow around the Earth, the Gulf stream carries vast quantities of warm Atlantic water northwards. The amount of heat involved is phenomenal, estimated by Stephen Rahmstorf, an oceanographer at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, as equivalent to one million powerplants. The volume of water flowing north has been estimated to be equal to 75 Amazons.

The warm waters of the Gulf are very salty due to surface water evaporation. The Earth’s rotation helps to push this water to the north east where it becomes  cooler, saltier, denser and heavier. It then sinks pulling the current behind it and heads back south as a deep water current.

Scientists are extremely worried that fresh water pouring into the northern ocean from melting glaciers will mix with the salt water of the current making it lighter and unable to sink. It is disturbing that from measurements taken in the last few years there is already a decline in the vigour of the circulation, and studies indicate that unlike other climate changes, ocean currents can shift or stop in just a few years.

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What is the Greenhouse Effect?

June 15, 2007 · Filed Under Uncategorized · Comment 

Greenhouse gases trap heat energy, reducing the amount that is radiated from the earth back into space, acting as a partial blanket and causing a difference of about 21ºC between the average temperature that we would have and the actual average of the earth surface temperature. If there were no greenhouse gases the earth would not be habitable for humans.If a certain level of greenhouse gases warms the earth by about 21ºC, it would not be surprising if higher levels would warm it further and this is exactly what is happening.

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  1. Sara Says: