Interglacial instability of North Atlantic Deep Water ventilation

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Galaasen, Eirik Vinje, Ninnemann, Ulysses S., Kessler, Augustin, Irvalı, Nil, Rosenthal, Yair, Tjiputra, Jerry, Bouttes, Nathaëlle, Roche, Didier M., Kleiven, Helga (Kikki) F., Hodell, David A.
• Other Authors: Norges Forskningsråd
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2020
• Subjects: NADW; North Atlantic Deep Water; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aay6381; https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.aay6381; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aay6381

Disrupting deep circulation Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the related process of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) have been thought to be stable during warm, interglacial periods. Galaasen et al. report that episodes of reduced NADW over the past 500,000 years actually have been relatively common and occasionally long-lasting features of interglacials and that they can occur independently of the catastrophic freshwater outburst floods normally thought to be their cause (see the Perspective by Stocker). This discovery implies that large NADW disruptions might be more likely than we have assumed in the warmer climate of the future. Science , this issue p. 1485 see also p. 1425