How a hidden ocean circulates beneath the Antarctic ice

[admin]

Thick ice isolates a hidden ocean cavity from the furious winds and freezing air temperatures of Antarctica. But nothing stops the tides.

How a hidden ocean circulates beneath the Antarctic ice : Read more

 

[Broadlands]

It was discovered in the early 1980s that ocean currents in the Weddell Sea were cycling surface waters into abyssal depths. Man-made CFCs were detected having down welled from the surface with accompanying upwelling into northern waters. This discovery makes the traditional idea that deep water recycling takes thousands of years wrong.

Dissolved chiorofluorocarbon studies in the Weddell Sea by JOHN L. BULLISTER

Excerpts..."The observed distributions of these dissolved CFCs can be used to study the exchange of atmospheric gases with the ocean, and the rates and pathways by which dense surface waters in this region are mixed into the interior of the ocean. “

"The high levels of CFCs and near-modern F-11/F-12 ratios observed in the core of the Weddell Sea Bottom Water boundary current at distances greater than 1,000 kilometers from the source region show that the renewal rate of this water mass is rapid relative to the overlying deep waters, and that these compounds are rapidly carried by deep circulation processes to the northern edge of the Weddell Sea."

 

[philip_rhoades]

Very interesting stuff!

Also, thanks for sticking with using only scientific (ie SI) units instead of Imperial Units with SI units in brackets - breaking up the flow of reading . .