North Atlantic deep water
The North Atlantic Deep Water ( North Atlantic Deep Water - NADW ) is next to the Antarctic Bottom Water one of the deep water masses of the global conveyor belt . The cold and dense water forms in the area of the Greenland Sea / European Arctic Ocean , where water from the North Atlantic Current gives off its thermal energy to the cold atmosphere, so that it gains density and sinks to the bottom. This process, called convection, can be observed in several regions of the North Sea and the North Atlantic.
To get back into the open Atlantic, the water has to cross the Greenland-Scotland Ridge , which separates the Northern European Sea from the Atlantic. It is pressed from the North Sea basin via the Denmark Strait and the Faroe Bank Canal . On the other side of the ridge, it falls several hundred to thousand meters down, similar to an underwater waterfall, whereby it mixes with the adjacent water layers due to the turbulence. The resulting water is very dense and flows south at 16 to 18 Sverdrup over the Antarctic deep water. It reaches the Antarctic after about 1000 years.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ William M. Smethie, Rana A. Fine, Alfred Putzka, E. Peter Jones: Tracing the flow of North Atlantic Deep Water using chlorofluorocarbons . In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans . tape 105 , C6, June 15, 2000, ISSN 2156-2202 , pp. 14297-14323 , doi : 10.1029 / 1999JC900274 ( wiley.com [accessed March 6, 2017]).
- ↑ a b James R. Pfafflin, Edward N. Ziegler: Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering , CRC Press, 2006, ISBN 0849398436 , pp 796-797.
- ↑ bildungsserver.hamburg.de: The Great Marine Conveyor Belt: Flow System (March 21, 2017)