North Atlantic Ocean | region, Atlantic Ocean | Britannica (original) (raw)
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Bond events
In Bond event …sediment cores collected from the North Atlantic Ocean (see also core sampling). They are associated with cyclic temperature fluctuations punctuated by abrupt episodes of climate warming, which culminate in massive releases of icebergs from glaciers and Read More
climate
In Atlantic Ocean: The North Atlantic Weather over the North Atlantic is largely determined by large-scale wind currents and air masses emanating from North America. Near Iceland, atmospheric pressure tends to be low, and air flows in a counterclockwise direction. Conversely, air flows clockwise around the Azores, a high-pressure… Read More
Dansgaard-Oeschger event
In Dansgaard-Oeschger event …the subpolar gyre in the North Atlantic—a location where ocean currents and wind systems meet and thermal gradients are sharpest due to southward reaching ice—may play a critical role in the onset of D-O events under certain conditions. Read More
hydrology
In Atlantic Ocean: The North Atlantic In the North Atlantic the trade winds maintain a fairly steady current from east to west, partly by the direct action of the wind and partly by maintaining an accumulation of warm water on the northern side of the current. A great bulk… Read More
physiography
In Atlantic Ocean: Extent …used to define particularly the northern but also the southern limits of the Atlantic Ocean. There are no universally accepted boundary conventions. In the north the situation is further complicated by the fact that the Arctic Ocean frequently is considered to be a dependent sea of the Atlantic. This is… Read More
ships and shipping
In ship: The first Atlantic crossings It was on the North Atlantic that most of the advances in steam shipping took place. Because river line and narrow-seas steaming was first to gain commercial importance, and shallow-water propulsion was easily accomplished with paddle wheels turning beside or behind the hull, that method of driving a ship… Read More
thermohaline circulation
In ocean current: Thermohaline circulation …regions, chiefly in the northern North Atlantic and near Antarctica. These dense water masses spread into the full extent of the ocean and gradually upwell to feed a slow return flow to the sinking regions. A theory for the thermohaline circulation pattern was proposed by Stommel and Arnold Arons in… Read More
In climate: The ocean surface and climate anomalies The circulation over the North Atlantic and northern Europe during early winter has been found to be sensitive to large ocean surface temperature anomalies south of Newfoundland. When a warm positive anomaly exists in this region, an anomalous surface anticyclone occurs in the atmosphere above the central Atlantic at… Read More
