An international team discovered a previously unrecognized ocean current that transports water to one of the world’s largest “waterfalls” in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Bank Channel Overflow into the deep North Atlantic. While investigating the pathways that water takes to feed this major waterfall, the research team identified a surprising path of the cold and dense water flowing at depth, which led to the discovery of this new ocean current.
“This new ocean current and the path it takes toward the Faroe Bank Channel are exciting findings,” said Léon Chafik, the lead author of the paper published in Nature Communications and a research scientist at Stockholm University, Sweden.
“The two discoveries reported here, in one of the best studied areas of the world ocean, is a stark reminder that we still have much to learn about the Nordic Seas,” said co-author Thomas Rossby, emeritus professor at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. “This is crucial given the absolutely fundamental role they play in the major glacial-interglacial climate swings.”
Read more at University of Rhode Island
Photo Credit: Erik Christensen via Wikimedia Commons
