Plate Tectonics And Ocean Currents Influence Climate Change

The ocean's surface waters are separated from colder, deeper water by a thermocline. The upwelling of cold waters, along the equator in the eastern half of the pacific basin, can be blocked when sea level is high, resulting in warm events. When sea levels are low the thermocline tends to be shallow, allowing upwelling motions to bring cold water to the surface, resulting in cold conditions. How it's measured is by devices used to track decadal variability and climate patterns which includes thermometers, rain gauges, and stream gauges. Sea surfaces temperature is important in tracking ENSO and other ocean oscillations. This can be measured by the distance

The first argument examined on the man-made global warning side is that increasing greenhouse gases caused by human activities is causing directly observed climate changes. The first resulting climate change discussed is warming global surface temperature. There has been an increase in global surface temperature of 0.74 degrees C since the late 19th century. In the last 50 years alone the temperature has increased by 0.13 degrees C per decade. North America and Eurasia have seen the largest increase in warmth. However, some areas of the earth have actually cooled some this past century (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para6). After the mid 20th century 70% of the global land mass saw reduced diurnal temperatures. From 1979 to 2005 the maximum and minimum temperatures have shown no change; both indicate warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para10). Furthermore, borehole temperatures, snow cover, and glacier recession data all seem to agree with recent warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para11).

Climate itself adjusts time to time however recently it’s been noted that it’s been getting warmer more rapidly than expected, which in turn has melted ice sheets in the artic.The change the Artic will have an impact on the earth.

As the ocean has “specific heat capacity thousands times that of air” [Science line 2015] this then in turn means that the air above the water is heated not necessarily to the same temperature but it does rise. Furthermore, this then can being to cause a chain reaction effect with global warming. Firstly let’s put this in perspective imagine that everything is heating up meaning that the water is beginning to heat up as well. Now the water begins to increase the temperature in the air above it, after that the heat within the air is transported all around the world dude to the ocean currents. From here, it is easy to see how global warming effects the whole planet at once. [Science line

Plate tectonics has been known to have causes that cause a change in the ocean currents and in turn generates more heat. When these tectonic plates shift, the creation of the volcanic eruptions increases the degree of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere. This is what leads to a rise in the temperature levels globally. Higher concentrations of sulfur dioxide could mean the Earth is becoming warmer at four times the rate of carbon dioxide concentration.

The atmosphere and ocean are connected and work together to transfer heat and water across the globe. In fact, the ocean can store more heat than land surfaces and thus a majority of the thermal energy is in the water. The absorption and movement of energy on earth is known as the ocean-atmosphere system (“Energy in the Ocean and Atmosphere”, n.d.). Heat transfer in the atmosphere is caused with radiation, convection, and conduction. The ocean currents help transfer heat towards the poles. Heat flows from warmer objects

The ice of Antarctica plays an important part of the global climate, “…the ice cover regulates exchange of heat, moisture, and gases between the surrounding atmosphere and the ocean, which eventually affects the whole Earth” (). The ocean currents created by the Antarctica ice plays a necessary role in the earth’s climate. . “…when the sea ice begins to form, it rejects the brine, which eventually increases the density of the upper ocean water. This water sinks and comes to be known as deep ocean current. These currents carry heat, which affect the climate

The second main “driver” of global temperature change is reflectivity. Changes in reflectivity affect how much energy enter Earth’s system. When the sunlight reaches Earth, it can be reflected or absorbed, and that depends on the Earth’s surface and atmosphere; light colors reflect the most sunlight, while dark colors absorb more sunlight. Albedo, the amount of solar radiation reflected from an object or surface, indicates the amount of sunlight reflected as a percentage. Earth has an albedo of about 30%, which means that 70% of the sunlight is absorbed (NRC, 2010). This is important because the sunlight absorbed warms the land, water and atmosphere. In the past, this can be seen in the melting of sea ice or increases in cloud cover.

While plate tectonics may have direct effects on the amount of carbon sequestered into the deep carbon cycle, they may also have other, less well known effects. According to Climatic Variation in Earth History (Barron, n.d.) plate tectonics can effect global climate through continental distribution, which can affect the planet’s albedo, transfers of latent heat, thermal inertia, and restrict ocean currents; and continental elevation, which can affect regional climate and large-scale circulation of weather and air. Potential differences in albedo and high latitude land area can have a substantial effect on the amount of solar energy reflected back into the atmosphere instead of being absorbed by the surface of the Earth. Albedo refers to the

The studies of Earth have shown that in the last hundred years, the temperature has gone up one degree Fahrenheit. Even just one degree can make a big difference to the Earth’s natural form. The warming of the Earth has caused the snow and ice to melt much faster and the ocean levels to rise. In the next hundred years the effects will be more severe.

The Earth has been experiencing a considerable amount of climate change for the last several decades. Natural factors that contribute to the climate system consist of: solar output, volcanic activity and earth’s orbit around the sun. The two factors relevant on timescales of contemporary climate exist in volcanic activity and changes in solar radiation. The earth’s energy balance primarily influences the amount of incoming energy from volcanic eruptions, which have a relatively short-term effect on climate. Changes in solar output have contributed greatly to climate trends over the past century. The effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been at least ten times that of changes in the Sun’s output and the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, receiving twice the amount of earth’s radiation. Although the sun is the engine that drives all the weather, oceans and atmosphere control the sun 's energy along certain

As this continues to occur, not only is our atmosphere getting warmer but by doing so, so is our water. And since our oceans water help absorb most of the excess heat our atmosphere creates, when it absorbs too much heat (making the water warmer) it affects the lives of the animals

Climate change does not just increase the temperature, it also causes a change in precipitation, wind, humidity, a change in seasons, and lastly a decrease in temperature. The effects of the changes are

The oceans play an important role in the climate system owing to the interannual and longer

There are many ideas of what is causing climate changes in our atmosphere. Everything from visible or sensible changes any person can determine, like how we are experiencing a lot more hotter days in what is suppose to be cooler seasons, to in depth-researched changes from scientist, such as