The Impact of Thermohaline Circulation

Your entire climate depends on a giant underwater conveyor belt that takes a thousand years

to finish just one loop. It is called thermohaline circulation and it is absolutely

wild. Basically, warm water travels from the tropics to the north,

gets super salty and cold, and sinks like a brick to the ocean floor.

This sinking motion powers the currents that keep Europe warm and the oceans full of oxygen.

But melting ice is dumping fresh water that is too light to sink. If this engine stalls,

marine life suffocates and our weather goes completely chaotic.