Gulf Stream

Gulf Stream

News: Recently, A scientific study has raised concerns that the Gulf Stream system, part of the Atlantic Meridional
Overturning Circulation (AMOC), could collapse as early as 2025.
 

What is Gulf Stream?
• The Gulf Stream is a powerful ocean current in the North Atlantic Ocean.
• It originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows north-eastward along the eastern coast of the United States, then across the Atlantic towards Europe.
• The Gulf Stream is part of a larger system of ocean currents called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.
 

What will be the consequences of a collapse?
• It could disrupt the rainfall patterns that many people depend on for food and water, such as in India, South America, and West Africa.
• It could also lower the temperatures in Europe, increase the sea level rise on the east coast of North America, and affect the stability of the Amazon rainforest and the Antarctic ice sheets.
 

What is AMOC?
• It is a large system of ocean currents. It is the Atlantic branch of the ocean conveyor belt or ThermoHaline Circulation (THC) and distributes heat and nutrients throughout the world’s ocean basins.
• AMOC carries warm surface waters from the tropics towards the Northern Hemisphere, where it cools and sinks.
• It then returns to the tropics and then to the South Atlantic as a bottom current. From there it is distributed to all ocean basins via the Antarctic Circumpolar current.