The Thermohaline Circulation and Climate Change Michael P. Erb
The Thermohaline Circulation
Younger Dryas
Glacial Lake Agassiz
“Simulated Tropical Response to a Substantial Weakening of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation” – Zhang & Delworth 2005 Journal of Climate Climate Model Experiment: an extra freshwater forcing of 0.6 Sv (1 Sv = 10 6 m 3 s -1 ) is uniformly distributed over the North Atlantic for 60 years
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.
Professional Papers Haug, G. H., and R. Tiedemann, Effect of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama on Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation. Nature, 393, Teller, J. T., D. W. Leverington, and J. D. Mann, Freshwater outbursts to the oceans from glacial Lake Agassiz and their role in climate change during the last deglaciation. Quaternary Science Reviews, 21, Weaver, A. J., O. A. Saenko, P. U. Clark, and A. X. Mitrovika, Meltwater Pulso 1A from Antarctica as a Trigger of the Bolling-Allerod Warm Interval. Science, 299, Zhang, R., and T. L. Delworth, Simulated Tropical Response to a Substantial Weakening of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation. Journal of Climate, 18,