It’s been talked about for a while (in fact I covered this 6 years ago), but a lot of things have been said about the potential collapse of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC. This global current that keeps Europe and North America (but especially Europe) from being covered in ice is increasingly under threat of slowing or even stopping. The results would be catastrophic.
TRANSCIPT:
Let’s start with the dismal outlook.
Back in 2021, a study in Nature Geosciences showed that the AMOC was the weakest it’s been in more than 1,000 years.
The study looked at 11 indicators like deep-sea sediments and ocean temperature patterns going all the way back to 400 C.E.
Nine indicators showed a consistent pattern of the AMOC weakening.
A more recent study from 2024 found that the abyssal [uh·bi·sl] limb of the AMOC in the North Atlantic is weakening.
Also published in Nature Geosciences, the study used mooring observations and hydrographic data from multiple sources in the North Atlantic.
So, the AMCO has an upper cell and a deep-sea cell that is underneath it.
The upper cell moves warm water from the South Atlantic Ocean to the North Atlantic, where it cools down, sinks, and then flows back down south.
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