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Climate in Earth History Studies in Geophysics (1982) / Chapter Skim
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7 Ocean Circulation, Plate Tectonics, and Climate
Pages 83-89

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From page 83...
... bottom water was produced by the sinking of warm, salty water formed by evaporation in low-latitude marginal seas rather than by the sinking of cold water formed in polar and subpolar marginal seas. The possi83 bility of the formation of warm saline bottom water (WSBW)
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From page 84...
... Because so little is known about thermohaline circulation, a simple horizontally averaged model exploring how buoyancy sources determine the stratification and vertical circulation seemed appropriate. The essential assumption of the model is that dense water sources have a sufficient buoyancy deficit to drive turbulent plumes that entrain v ater from the ocean's interior, thus increasing the plume's volume transport and decreasing their density as they penetrate.
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From page 85...
... model provides a conceptual framework for evaluating the relative potential of various marginal seas for the production of deep water. We suggest that at some time in the past, the strongest initial buoyancy flux, and there fore the bottom water, originated from a marginal basin subject to high evaporation rates and where the density deficit was caused by high salinity rather than low temperature.
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From page 86...
... 20 10 ~ Q o IU uu cr _ 5 CONSEQUENCES OF WARM SALINE BOTTOM WATER FOR OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY IL cc LU Ll 5 UU tOur hypothesis, that plate motions and sea-level changes provide the mechanisms responxible for variations in the production of desp water, has many consequenoes for the chemistry of the ocean and atmosphere. The chemical state of the ocean at times when WSBW was dominant would have been very different from that which exists at present, and evidence of these differences should be present in the chemistry and isotopic composition of marine sediments.
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From page 87...
... This transport is accomplished by sensible heat transport in the atmosphere and ocean and by latent heat transport in the form of water vapor in the atmosphere. The poleward transport of sensible heat in the atmosphere for she same circulation intensHty would be curtailed by an equable climate because of the reduced meridional temperature gradient.
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From page 88...
... The link be tween the e two phenomena is higher poleward transport of water vapor in the atmosphere with its equivalent latent heat. Manabe and Wetherald studied the climatic structure in a model atmosphere forced by an increase in CO2 content and found a striking increase in latent heat transport.
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From page 89...
... . The formation of warm saline bottom water in ancient oceans, Ocean ~Lfodeling 38, 1-7.
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Key Terms

  • bottom water
  • marginal seas
  • buoyancy flux
  • thermohaline circulation
  • heat transport

  • saline bottom
  • warm saline
  • deep sea
  • latent heat
  • source strengths

  • epicontinental seas
  • poleward transport
  • initial buoyancy
  • buoyancy sources
  • water sources

  • cold bottom
  • sensible heat
  • water vapor
  • net evaporation
  • ocean circulation

  • cold water
  • oceanic heat
  • surface water
  • oceanic deep
  • evaporative marginal

  • meridional temperature
  • temperature gradient
  • polar sources
  • sea ret
  • mediterranean sea


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