{"id":59410,"date":"2026-02-17T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/news\/melting-ice-in-antarctica-is-changing-the-circulation-of-the-world-s-oceans\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:05:00","slug":"melting-ice-in-antarctica-is-changing-the-circulation-of-the-world-s-oceans","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/news\/melting-ice-in-antarctica-is-changing-the-circulation-of-the-world-s-oceans\/","title":{"rendered":"Melting ice in Antarctica is changing the circulation of the world’s oceans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new study has found that the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has in the past led to major changes in the functioning of ocean currents. Scientists analyzed sediment cores from the bottom of the Southern Ocean and found that fresh water flows increased the stratification of water masses. This directly affected the global climate and carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Earth has been experiencing alternating ice ages and warm interglacials for about three million years. Transitions between these states were always accompanied by the melting of the huge polar ice caps. While the influence of northern ice on the Atlantic has been studied quite well, the role of Antarctica has long remained a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n

To look into the past, an international team of researchers led by Fran\u00e7ois Frippier from the Max Planck Institute of Chemistry studied cores<\/a> bottom sediments. They looked at the isotopic composition of organic matter in the shells of diatoms. These microscopic algae accumulate in huge quantities at the bottom and store information about the environment in which they lived.<\/p>\n\n\n

It turned out that during periods of active melting of Antarctic ice, the ocean near the continent became highly stratified. Fresh water is lighter than salt water and forms a surface layer that interferes with vertical mixing. It is as if a dense film appeared on the surface of the ocean, blocking the exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n

But the picture turned out to be more complicated. Further from the coast, in the region of the polar front, fresh water, together with strong westerly winds, created conditions for the rise of deep waters. That is, the system did not stop completely. Deep waters rose, reached the surface and released the accumulated CO2 back into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n

Scientists believe that it was this mechanism that helped break out of the ice ages. Increased stratification off the coast of Antarctica and upwelling in the north acted as communicating vessels. They regulated the flow of greenhouse gases and increased the warming that ended the Ice Age.<\/p>\n\n\n

The conclusion is simple and alarming: Antarctica is not a passive participant in climate processes. It is an active player, capable of changing ocean circulation and influencing the global carbon cycle. Understanding these mechanisms allows us to more accurately predict how the planet will behave during the current melting of glaciers.<\/p>\n\n\n

Source: Phys.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study has found that the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has in the past led to major changes in the functioning of ocean currents. Scientists analyzed sediment cores from the bottom of the Southern Ocean and found that fresh water flows increased the stratification of water masses. This directly affected the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":44604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Melting ice in Antarctica is changing the circulation of the world's oceans","_seopress_titles_desc":"The melting of Antarctica in the past has increased water stratification and influenced CO2 emissions. Find out how the glacier controls the Earth's climate.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59410","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","category-eco"],"acf":[],"pbg_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei.webp",1536,1024,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-150x100.webp",150,100,true],"medium":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-300x200.webp",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-768x512.webp",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-1024x683.webp",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei.webp",1536,1024,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei.webp",1536,1024,false],"bricks_large_16x9":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-1200x675.webp",1200,675,true],"bricks_large":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-1200x800.webp",1200,800,true],"bricks_large_square":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-1200x1024.webp",1200,1024,true],"bricks_medium":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-600x400.webp",600,400,true],"bricks_medium_square":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/antarktida-kerny-diatomei-600x600.webp",600,600,true]},"pbg_author_info":{"display_name":"Yulia Frolova","author_link":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/author\/giulia-nikolaevna\/","author_img":false},"pbg_comment_info":" No Comments","pbg_excerpt":"A new study has found that the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has in the past led to major changes in the functioning of ocean currents. Scientists analyzed sediment cores from the bottom of the Southern Ocean and found that fresh water flows increased the stratification of water masses. This directly affected the","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/59410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/59410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}