| Summary: | Ninth Conference on Global Change, American Meteorological Society The Drake Passage cuts the connection between the South American and Antarctic continents. Along the entire length of the latitude circles where the Drake Passage extends, the water can travel around the earth forming a zonal flow- the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). This is the only place in World Ocean that the zonal flow can travel around the earth without land blocking. Thus, the Drake Passage has been considered an important factor in the global ocean circulation. Using a primitive equation model, Cox (1989) pointed out that if the Drake Passage closed, thermohaline drives alone and the entire World Ocean below the thermocline is dominated by water formed near the Antarctic continent. When the Drake Passage is opened, the resulting ACC serves to isolate the extreme Southern Ocean. Thus, the absence of the Drake Passage is to strengthen the thermohaline circulation.
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