Introduction
Because of its impact on global climate, one of the most important aspects of ocean circulation is the rate of meridional overturning (also called “Conveyor Belt” or thermohaline circulation) (Figure O7; see Thermohaline circulation). In the Atlantic Ocean, the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) brings heat from the tropics to high northern latitudes, which ameliorates the climate of the northern continents (Broecker, 1997). Changes in the rate of the Atlantic MOC and in the associated production of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) may thus have been directly implicated in the large climatic cycles and abrupt climate changes that characterize the Quaternary period and may have contributed to the waxing and waning of the large continental ice sheets that covered North America and Northern Europe during glacial times (see Quaternary climate transitions and cycles). Changes in the global ocean circulation could have also played an indirect role in altering the...
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Francois, R. (2009). Ocean Paleocirculation. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_157
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