Ocean conveyor belt

The ocean conveyor belt is one of the major elements of today s ocean circulation system (Broecker, 1997). A key feature is that it delivers an enormous amount of heat to the North Atlantic and this has profound implications for past, present, and probably future climates. 

Fig. 10-11 Schematic of the ocean "conveyor belt" from Broecker (1991). (Reproduced with permission of the illustrator, Joe Le Monnier.)... 

The density of the water controls the deepwater circulation. If the density of a water body increases, it has a tendency to sink. Subsequently, it will spread out over a horizon of uniform circulatory system is also known as thermohaline circulation. As shown in Figure 5 of the ocean conveyor belt, the densest oceanic waters are formed in Polar Regions due to the relatively low temperatures and the salinity increase that results from ice formation. Antarctic Bottom Water (ABW) is generated in the Weddell Sea and flows northward into the South Atlantic. North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW)... 

Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the thermohaline circulation of the world ocean, also know as the great ocean conveyor belt, highlighting polar regions of deepwater formation, deepwater circulation eastward from the poles and the returning westward surface water flow (Adapted from IPCC, 2001. )...

A natural oceanic phenomenon whereby cold water in the Arctic/North Atlantic sinks to the ocean floor and then circulates at depth around the world, to surface eventually in the Indian and Pacific oceans some hundreds of years later. This circulation is sometimes called the Ocean conveyor belt, the Great ocean conveyer, the Global conveyor belt, or, most commonly, the Meridional overturning circulation (often abbreviated as MOC). 

Deeper yet, water may enter the "Great Ocean Conveyor Belt" (Figure 2.2 [28]) where thermohaline circulation driven by variations in temperature and salinity affects the three-dimensional movement of the ocean s waters around the earth [29, 30]. As Arctic air chills the oceans near Iceland and sea ice forms, the salinity and density of the water at the surface increase... 

Great Ocean Conveyor Belt. (From Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRID-Arendal (http //www.grida.no/graphicslib/detail/world-ocean-thermohaline-circulation 57ea). With permission.)... 

Robbins JA (1988) A model for particle-selective transport of tracers in sediments with conveyor-belt deposit feeders. Journal of Geophysical Research 91 8542-8558 Robinson LF, Belshaw NS, Henderson GM (in press) U and Th isotopes in seawater and modem carbonates from the Bahamas. Geochim Cosmochim Acta Rosenthal Y, Boyle EA, Labeyrie L, Oppo D (1995a) Glacial enrichments of authigenic Cd and U in subantarctic sediments A climatic control on the elements oceanic budget Paleoceanography 10(3) 395-413... 

It influences the distribution of substances between the aqueous phase and particulate matter, which, in turn, affects their transport through the various reservoirs of the earth. The affinity of the solutes to the surfaces of the "conveyor belt" of the settling inorganic and biotic particles in the ocean (and in lakes) regulate their (relative) residence time, their residual concentrations and their... 

Ocean currents The "Great Heat Conveyor Belt. ... 

The deep water flow in the ocean is often depicted as a conveyor belt in which water that originates at the surface in the North Atlantic Ocean (NADW) flows through the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans before it upwells and returns (Fig. 1.12). The analogy... 

The final important factor affecting the solubility of CaCOs in the ocean is the concentration of carbonate ion. The high ratio of organic carbon to carbonate carbon in the particulate material degrading and dissolving in the deep sea causes the deep waters to become more acidic and carbonate-poor as they progress along the conveyor belt... 

TWO PRINCIPAL TYPES of Earth s crusts have formed. These are the oceanic and the continental crusts that differ in composition, age, and evolution. The oceanic crust is effectively a conveyor belt that transfers the chemical elements, derived from melting in the mantle beneath the mid-ocean ridges, to the plate margins where they are subducted back down into the mantle. The composition is dominated by basalts with a veneer of sediment derived from biological activity in the oceans and weathering of the continents. Intraplate basaltic volcanoes from a deeper mantle source that involves some of the subducted oceanic crust, make a minor contribution to the oceanic crust. 

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