Large-scale currents are the conveyor belts of the ocean transporting water and nutrients and controlling Earth's climate. Surface currents are relatively easy to measure and track. But those in the deep ocean are mostly a mystery. Now, a new study. published in Nature Geoscience unveiled the biggest data set to date on the speed and direction of currents that flow near the seafloor, and it's nothing like what the scientists anticipated.
Previously, seafloor currents were believed to be steady and, in the region off the coast of Mozambique that the authors studied, to flow from south to north. However, the results revealed that deep-sea currents are far more dynamic than previously known. The findings suggest that current simulations used to track the flow of sediment and pollutants in the deep sea and reconstruct ancient ocean conditions need an update.
"These conveyor belts of currents that operate the whole way around our planet are going to be far more complicated than the textbook models suggest," said Mike Clare, a National Oceanography Centre sedimentologist and senior author of the study. "They really do warrant very careful investigation."
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