New research has shown that the circulation of ocean currents in the North Atlantic is now the slowest in the last 1,500 years.
And this is likely to have the most direct impact on the future climate in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
The findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Something similar, according to the researchers, took place in the so-called third phase of the Little Ice Age - between 1600 and 1850 AD. Then, throughout Europe, the average annual temperature dropped sharply, in Greenland, Viking colonies froze and died out, and in winter the Danube and Thames rivers froze through and skated on them.
The graph below shows the so-called Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, from which currents carry warm water to the Arctic, and cold water to the Equator. The cold Labrador Current is marked in blue and the warm Gulf Stream in red.
On the left is the position at the beginning of the twentieth century, and on the right in our days. The yellow dotted line marks the place where the currents mix, which affects the temperature. As you can see on the graph, now this place has decreased in size many times.
The study was led by Christelle Noth and Benoit Thibodeau of the Current Division, Institute of Marine Sciences, University of the Congo. According to them, this situation is likely a consequence of the melting of the ice sheets of the Greenland ice sheet due to global warming.
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The researchers examined samples of foraminifera (shell single-celled organisms) taken from sedimentary cores off the coast of Canada in the place where the two currents meet to find out what the temperature was in the Atlantic Ocean at different intervals.
A slowdown in the circulation of currents in the North Atlantic can have a profound effect not only on the North American and European climate, but also on the African and Asian. Including the summer Asian monsoons.
This is not the first time various scientists have warned about this in recent years. There are also horrors that incredible frosty winters will break out in Europe.
Frozen Thames. Painting from 1677 by artist Abraham Hondius.
According to the research group, a similar slowdown in the circulation of currents, and to a less pronounced degree, was also noted in 1600-1850, which are part of the third phase of the Little Ice Age. And this caused severe frosty winters.
However, the researchers do not want to scare anyone yet and say that additional work is required to test and confirm their hypothesis.
