How does ocean circulation work?

An international team led by Scripps postdoctoral fellow Bethan Wynne-Cattanach took measurements along the slope of an undersea canyon in the Atlantic Ocean. What they discovered challenges long-held theories about how cold, deep water moves in the ocean.

Challenging the traditional ocean circulation model. The study's findings point to a phenomenon called upwelling-driven turbulent mixing. The process, which has been observed directly for the first time, involves cold, dense water rising rapidly from the deep ocean to the surface along steep underwater slopes.

The measured upwelling speed was extremely high, more than 10,000 times faster than previously estimated by renowned oceanographer Walter Munk in the 1960s. (More on openaccessgovernment.org)