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THE DEEP WATER

CIRCULATION
(THE NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP
WATER & ANTRACTIC BOTTOM
WATER)

NAME- SUSMITA MONDAL

CRN – GEOG05 REG NO -20412210005

PG – II SEM

DEPARETMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

PRESIDENCY UNIVERSITY,KOLKATA

SUBMITTED TO DR.KRISHNA GOPAL GHOSH

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
( PRESIDENCY UNIVERSITY , KOLKATA)
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CONTENT

Introduction ------------------ 3-4

Deep ocean circulation ----------- 5- 9

North Atlantic Deep water --------- 5
Antractic Bottom water ---------- 6
Deep ocean circulation with special
reference to the NADW and AABW --------------- 7-9

Ocean circulation –a climate regulator ---------- 10

Ocean circulation and climate changes ----------- 11 - 12

Important of ocean circulation -------------- 12

Reference and bibliography ------------------ 13

INTRODUCTION
By redistributing heat over the globe, ocean currents have a major impact on
the global climate. They cause the relative mildness of the Western European
climate, for example. Ocean and atmospheric currents form a coupled
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dynamic system. Instabilities of this system, the El Nino Southern Oscillation

(ENSO) in particular, produce important climate fluctuations. Ocean currents
not only distribute heat, but they also play a crucial role in the global
ecosystem by storing CO2 and recycling nutrients.

There are two main types of ocean currents: currents driven mainly by wind
and currents mainly driven by density differences. Density depends on
temperature and salinity of the water. Cold and salty water is dense and will
sink. Warm and less salty water will float. Although tides are generally a
dominant driver of water motion in shallow coastal waters, their relative
importance in the oceans is less. It should be noted, however, that tides are
mainly generated in the oceans (by the gravitational forces of moon and sun)
and are amplified when propagating onto the continental shelf (see the article
Ocean and shelf tides).

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated

by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis
effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences.
Depth contours, shoreline configurations, and interactions with other currents
influence a current's direction and strength. Ocean currents are primarily
horizontal water movements.
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An ocean current flows for great distances and together they create the global
conveyor belt, which plays a dominant role in determining the climate of
many of Earth‘s regions. More specifically, ocean currents influence the
temperature of the regions through which they travel.

The two basic types of currents –

• surface
• deep-water currents

DEEP OCEAN
CIRCULATION
Deep ocean water properties and circulation play critical roles in earth‘s
climate system . The ocean has an enormous capacity to absorb and relese
greenhouse gases.
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Ocean dynamics define and describe the motion of water within the oceans.
Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct
layers: mixed (surface) layer, upper ocean (above the thermocline), and deep
ocean. Ocean currents are measured in sverdrup (sv), where 1 sv is equivalent
to a volume flow rate of 1,000,000 m3 (35,000,000 cu ft) per second.

NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP WATER (NADW)-

North Atlantic Deep Water is a deep water mass formed in the North Atlantic
Ocean .Thermohaline circulation of the world‘s ocean involves the fiow of
warm surface waters from the southern hemisphere in to the North
Atlantic.Water flowing northward becomes modified through evaporation
and mixing with other water masses ,leading to increased salinity.

When this water reaches the North Atlantic it cools and sinks through
convection ,due to its decreased temperature and increased salinity resulting
in increased density.NAWD is the outflow of this thick deep layer ,which can
be detected by its high salinity ,high oxygen content,nutrient minima ,high
14C/12C and cholofluorocarbons.

NADW has a temperature of 2-4 degree centrigrade with a dsalinity of

34.935.0 psu found at a depth between 1500 and 400 m.
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ANTARCTIC BOTTOM WATER ( AABW)-

The Antarctic bottom water is a type of water mass in the southern
ocean surrounding Antarctica with temperatures ranging from -0.8 to
2 degree centrigrade ,salinities from 34.6 to 34.7 psu.Bening the
densest water mass of the oceans,AABW is found to occupy the
depth range below 4000 m of all ocean basins that have a connection
to the sourthern ocean at that level.

DEEP OCEAN CIRCULATION WITH SPECIAL

REFERENCE TO THE NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP
WATER (NADW) AND ANTRACTIC BOTTOM
WATER (AABW)
Deep ocean currents are driven by density and temperature gradients. This
thermohaline circulation is also known as the ocean's conveyor belt. These
currents, sometimes called submarine rivers, flow deep below the surface of
the ocean and are hidden from immediate detection. Where significant
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vertical movement of ocean currents is observed, this is known as upwelling

and downwelling. Deep ocean currents are currently being researched using a
fleet of underwater robots called Argo.

Formation of the deepest waters of the World Ocean occurs in limited regions
of the global ocean, primarily in the northern North Atlantic where North
Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) is formed, and at a number of sites around the
continental margins of Antarctica where Antarctic Bottom Waters (AABW)
are formed. The deepwater formation processes play a significant role in
determining the large-scale physical and biogeochemical properties of the
deep ocean. These limited regions provide a conduit from the surface into the
vast volumes of water in the deep ocean.

Deep ocean currents ,which collectively are reffered to as thermohaline

circulation,are much different than surface ocean currents.The term
thermohaline refers to density differences in temperature (thermo) and
salinity(haline) in different bodies of water .These currents are slow and occur
deep within the water column.The earth‘s deep ocean circulation system
generally affects the entire ocean and is important in transporting water and
heat from the surface to the deep ocean and back.It is often thought of as a
conveyor belt by geoscientists for the reason.Noticed that the one at the top of
the water column ,the colored red and labeled ‗Gult Stream‘ , represents
surface currents .The diagram is looking at the Atlantic ocean from theArctic
( on the right) to the Antractica ( on the left).
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Deep ocean water is firstly formed in the northern Atlantic ocean.The water
here becomes denser than surrounding water because of brine rejection. Deep
water is also formed off the coast of Antractica by the same process in
southern Atlantic Ocean. Antarctic Bottom water is much colder ,thus
denser ,than North Atlantic deep water ,so it skins and flow below it.

In other words, the deep water that is formed in the North Atlantic flows
above the deep water that forms in Antractica. Some of the North Atlantic
deep water mass eventually resurfaces near the coast of Antractica. It is
important that deep water masses sink because as previously mentioned,this
leads to the eventual mixing of the oceans on thousand –year time scale ,and it
also brings oxygen and other atmospheroic gases ( such as co2) in to the deep
ocean .The entire thermohaline circulation system dependas on the sinking of
dense, saline waters in the Atlantic Ocean.The formation of dense water
depends water depends on the formation of ice .The formation of ice depends
on cool climates.Is is because of the thermohaline circulation system, along
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with surface currents ,that our oceans are able to mix on longer timescale and
thus absorb more co2 from the atmosphere.

THE GREAT CONVEY BELT ;

Deep water skins and flows at depth throughout the
major ocean basin.Deep water upwells to replace the surface warer that skins
in the polar region.Surface water must flows to high latitudes to replace water
sinking in polar regions.This idealized circulation is called the ‗GREAT
CONVEY BELT‘

OCEAN CIRCULATION ; A
CLIMATE REGULATOR
Ocean circulation has profound impacts on the mean state and variability of
the climate system. Equatorial upwelling and poleward divergence of cold,
nutrient and carbon rich waters maintain cool temperatures along the
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equator, large outgassing of natural carbon and oxygen, biological

productivity, and intense heat uptake. The subsequent meridional transport of
heat to the poles and its loss to the atmosphere moderates climate in mid-
tohigh latitude regions (e.g. Northwest Europe). Furthermore, changes in
equatorial upwelling and currents play central roles in driving El Niño and La
Niña phenomena, thus influencing global climate on interannual to decadal
timescales, and modulating the intensity of anthropogenic climate
change .Particularly, the MOC alleviates the impacts of climate change by
transporting most of the anthropogenic heat to depth . Recently, variations in
the MOC and its subsequentimpacts on ocean heat uptake have been proposed
as potential drivers for the ―hiatus‖ in global mean surface warming through
the intensification of the shallow overturning cells in the Pacific and through
changes in rates of deep water formation in the North Atlantic and upwelling
in the Southern Ocean . Additionally, upwelling of old preindustrial waters
that have been isolated from anthropogenic forcing was evoked as a driving
mechanism for the surface cooling trends observed over recent decades in the
Southern Ocean .

OCEAN CIRCULATION AND

CLIMATE CHANGE
Changes in the deep ocean can have enormous influence on Earth‘s climate.
Warming of the deep ocean makes a significant contribution to global sea level
rise. The capacity of the deep ocean to take up and store anthropogenic CO2
has and will have a major impact on the CO2 content of the atmosphere now
and far into the future. Paleooceanographic studies have provided evidence
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that despite the century-long timescales associated with renewal of deepwater,

rapid, major changes in deepwater formation and deep ocean circulation have
occurred in the past, resulting in rapid changes in Earth‘s climate. Continued
monitoring and analysis are necessary to follow and understand the changes
in the deep ocean—this is a very important component of Earth‘s climate.

The deep ocean circulation predict that global warming will have a negative
impact on the deep ocean circulation. Most studies have focused on the
northern Atlantic . The formation of dense sinking surface water in the Arctic
region will be counteracted by a higher atmospheric temperature and by
release of fresh water by ice melting. The feeding of the Atlantic Meridional
Overturning Circulation, which drives warm Gulf Stream waters to the north,
will thus be reduced. Besides, the density of the North Atlantic Deep Water
will be lower; therefore the cold return current will flow closer to the ocean
surface. It is expected that these factors will cause significant cooling of the
West European climate.

Ice melting and resulting fresh water releases in the Antarctic region will
hamper the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Model
simulations indicate that this may entail considerable warming of deep waters
in the entire Pacific; it may also affect the Atlantic by strengthening the
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The impact of fresh water
releases in the Antarctic region on the global climate and sea-level rise could
even be greater than the impact of freshening of the Arctic waters, as
discussed in the article Thermohaline circulation of the oceans.

Ocean currents are important in the study of marine debris, and vice versa.
These currents also affect temperatures throughout the world. For example,
the ocean current that brings warm water up the north Atlantic to northwest
Europe also cumulatively and slowly blocks ice from forming along the
seashores, which would also block ships from entering and exiting inland
waterways and seaports, hence ocean currents play a decisive role in
influencing the climates of regions through which they flow. Cold ocean water
currents flowing from polar and sub-polar regions bring in a lot of plankton
that are crucial to the continued survival of several key sea creature species in
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marine ecosystems. Since plankton are the food of fish, abundant fish
populations often live where these currents prevail.

An ocean currents are also very important in the dispersal of many life forms.
In example is the life-cycle of the European Eel.

IMPORTANCE OF DEEP OCEAN

CIRCULATION
The deep ocean is a huge storehouse of heat ,carbon,oxygen and
nutrients .Deep ocean circulation regulates uptake,distribution and relese of
these elements .The low overturning rate stabilized our global
climate.By ,carring oxgen into the deeper layer it support the largest habitat
on earth .

REFERENCES
AND BIBLOGRAPHY
 Thorpe SA (1995) Dynamical processes at the sea surface.Progress in
Oceanography 35: 315}352.
 Orsi AH, Johnson GC and Bullister JL (1999) Circulation,mixing, and
production of Antarctic Bottom Water.Progress in Oceanography 43:
55}109.
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 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Deep_Water#:~:text=
North%20Atlantic%20Deep%20Water%20(NADW,hemisphere%20in
to%20the%20North%20Atlantic
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_bottom_water
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetarysciences/
antarctic-bottom-water
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Deep_Water