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Unveiling the Hidden Impact of Seamounts on Ocean Circulation and Climate Change
Context: A recent study by an international team led by the University of Cambridge used computer modelling to quantify how turbulence around seamounts influences ocean circulation.
- Researchers found that turbulence is a major contributor to ocean mixing, a process currently missing from climate models used for policymaking.
Key Highlights
- Giant underwater mountains, called seamounts, some reaching thousands of metres high, play a surprising role in regulating ocean circulation and thus impact how our oceans store heat and carbon.
- They account for about a third of ocean mixing worldwide, with an even greater impact (around 40%) in the Pacific Ocean.
- The ocean is like a giant conveyor belt, with warm water from the tropics gradually moving toward the poles.
- As it cools, this water sinks thousands of metres into the ocean’s abyss, carrying with it stored carbon, heat, and nutrients. However, for the ocean to maintain its flow, this cold, heavy water must eventually resurface.
- This crucial mechanism was missing from climate models used in policymaking.
- By incorporating seamount-induced turbulence, scientists can improve model forecasts of how the ocean will respond to global warming.
About Oceanic Seafloor Features
- Continental Shelf: It is an area of relatively shallow water, usually less than a few hundred feet deep, that surrounds land.
- Continental Slope: The steeply sloped bottom of the ocean extends from the continental shelf down to the deep ocean bottom.
- Abyssal Plain: The largest habitat on earth that covers about 70% of the ocean. They are interrupted by features like hills, valleys, and seamounts (underwater mountains that are also hotspots for biodiversity).
- Mid-Ocean Ridges: An underwater mountain range, over 40,000 miles long, rising to an average depth of 8,000 feet. Volcanically active, it’s the site of seafloor spreading, where new crust is created.
- Ocean Trenches: The deepest parts of the ocean floor are found in these long, narrow depressions. Trenches form where tectonic plates collide, with one plate being forced beneath the other.
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- The Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth
- Oceanic Zone: It includes two types of zones: the pelagic and benthic zones.
- Pelagic zones are zones of oceanic waters. Benthic zones are areas of the bottom and topography of the ocean.
