Nature’s latest issue, due out tomorrow, publishes the results of a study that shows that the Gulf Stream current (the one that keeps Europe warm despite the fact that the UK is as far north as Hudson Bay) has slowed by about 30% since 1957. Actually, the study notes that the slowing has mostly happened in the years since 1998.
I recently attended at talk at Michigan State University given by Dr. Bill Curry from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in which he presented solid evidence that the gulf-stream had shut off entirely for periods of thousands of years at least twice in the last 20,000 years (during events known as the Younger Dryas (12,000 years ago) and the Heinrich Events (a variety of them). It was this type of research that provided what little basis last summer’s The Day After Tomorrow actually had (which was not very much).
Image Credit: Nature.com (modified to remove background color)
What are “Sinking regions?”
Doug,
Sinking regions refer to places where the Atlantic Gulf Stream current becomes dense enough (due to ice formation and evaporation, increasing the salinity of the water left behind) that it sinks beneath the surface.
The idea that the Gulf Steam has slowed just simply isn’t true. I’ve been crossing the Gulf Stream since the early 80s in submarines and sailboats, both of which are slow craft, especially the sailboat. A sailboat only goes 5knts and one must make corrections for the Gulf Stream current. A 30% reduction is a substantial reduction and would result in errors of navigation and or changes in the correction used. You can review any navigational aids you wish, you will not find any that have changed the correction used for the Gulf Stream since the ’80s, that is, the 1880s. The science here isn’t science. Instead of using a bunch of college kids that know nothing of the sea, get US Navy records and records from actual sailors that cross all the time.
The US Navy has accurate temperature records taken at depths to 1000ft for hundreds of locations daily. There is no changes in their records and their measurements were not take as part of any experiment, they are the only true double blind study with trained personel that exist and every wants to ignore them.