{"id":98193,"date":"2026-04-14T12:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=98193"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:16:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:46:04","slug":"atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a new study the complete collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could lead to the release of large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, particularly from the Southern Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a complex <\/span><b>system of ocean currents and eddies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (circular currents of water) that form a huge vertical loop spanning the <\/span><b>whole length of the Atlantic Ocean.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AMOC is also one of the <\/span><b>16 Earth system climate tipping<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> elements being studied by scientists<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Mechanism of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AMOC acts as an ocean conveyor belt, <\/span><b>transporting warm water northward from the tropics across the Atlantic <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at the surface, and cold water southward at the bottom.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This circulation is driven by <\/span><b>differences in temperature and salinity,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which create differences in water density \u2013 a process known as thermohaline circulation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the North Atlantic Ocean, the warm <\/span><b>water cools and becomes denser,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sinking and down into the deep ocean.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This <\/span><b>dense water then travels southward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> along the ocean floor, eventually warming and resurfacing to complete the cycle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Reason for Weakening of AMOC<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will weaken as greenhouse gas concentrations rise and <\/span><b>global temperatures increase.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the main drivers is believed to be the <\/span><b>influx of freshwater<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the melting <\/span><b>Greenland Ice Sheet,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which reduces ocean salinity and disrupts the circulation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Impact of Weakening of AMOC<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Gulf Stream<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a part of the AMOC, is a <\/span><b>warm current<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> responsible for mild climate at the Eastern coast of North America as well as Europe.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without a <\/span><b>proper AMOC and Gulf Stream, Europe will be very cold.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Modelling studies have shown that an AMOC shutdown <\/span><b>would cool the northern hemisphere<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>decrease rainfall over Europe<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can also have an <\/span><b>effect on the El Nino.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/climate-change\/atlantic-current-shows-steady-decline-with-scientists-warning-collapse-could-amplify-global-warming-and-disrupt-climate-systems\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DTE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is a complex system of ocean currents and eddies (circular currents of water) that form a huge vertical loop spanning the whole length of the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":98220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6847,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-98193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98193"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98241,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98193\/revisions\/98241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}