Warm water in Greenland

The accepted assumption until today was that the water that comes from the equatorial region in the Gulf Stream, cools already north of England and continues to flow when its temperature is close to the freezing temperature, but now a different picture is emerging

We know the cyclical currents in the oceans. One of the well-known is the Gulf Stream that warms Europe, its northern part reaches the North Sea and splits into branches that flow to the Pole or towards Greenland, the branch that reaches Greenland (considered new) flows along the coasts and around them.

The accepted assumption until now was that the water coming from the equatorial region cools already north of England and continues to flow when its temperature is close to the freezing temperature, but now a different picture is emerging.

Researchers led by oceanographer Fiamma Straneo, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), report that in the fjords around Greenland water originating from equatorial regions has been detected, at a temperature of 4 degrees.

The researchers who publish the results of the survey in: Nature Geosciences collected data from the Sermilik Fjord in East Greenland and the Helheim Glacier, which in 2003 lost several kilometers of its surface and doubled the rate of its "flow" into the ocean. The researchers found "equatorial water" at a temperature of 4 degrees in the depths of the glacier,

Some of the data such as: depth, temperature and direction of flow, were collected with the help of devices attached to the seals, it turns out that in the new months of July to December the edges of the glacier heat up (and melt) because of the warm "equatorial water". According to Fiama, "the equatorial water flows through the fjords at high speed" which allows for the rapid transfer of heat to the environment and the melting of ice at the edges/margins of the glaciers.

The Greenland glaciers form a cover that is about 3 km thick in an area of ​​about one and a half million square kilometers, in the last decade Greenland glaciers lost About 7% of their volume. The melting of glaciers has doubled the rise of the water level in the oceans, an increase that is (also) caused by the warming of the seas. The melting of glaciers due to global warming is a known process, but researchers are only now beginning to measure and understand the effect of ocean currents on the ice cover.

One of the reasons for the increase in the phenomenon is changes in the flows in the North Atlantic Ocean, due to a lack of data from previous decades it is difficult to compare the situation today to the past, yet it is clear that increasing amounts of "equatorial water" are flowing to northern regions, water at a temperature that causes glaciers to melt.

This is the first comprehensive survey that shows the strength of the cyclical currents in the ocean and the changes caused by different flow paths, what causes the flow path to change...?

Note: After the news was written, satellite images were published that show how a huge glacier broke and separated from the body of ice in Northeast Antarctica, the area of ​​the break is about 2,500 square kilometers and the depth is about 400 meters. If the fault moves north and melts over the years, it will be an addition of about a trillion cubic meters of fresh (cold) water to the system, an addition that may causeChanges in the flow cycles in the oceans.