Antarctica’s Hidden Threat: The World’s Most Powerful Water Flow Is Accelerating, and It Could Have Disastrous Consequences

Scientists extracted a 5.3 million-year record of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current by drilling sediment cores in the Earth’s most remote waters. Here, the drill ship JOIDES Resolution makes its way through the far southeast Pacific. Credit: Gisela Winckler

Continuously swirling around the southernmost continent, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is by far the world’s most powerful and consequential mover of water. In recent decades it has been speeding up, but scientists have been unsure whether that is connected to human-induced global warming, and whether the current might offset or amplify some of warming’s effects.

The conditions for the ACC were set about 34 million years ago, after tectonic forces separated Antarctica from other continental masses further north and the ice sheets began building up; the current isin its modern form 12 million to 14 million years ago. Driven by continuous westerly winds, and with no land in the way, it circles Antarctica clockwise at about 4 kilometers per hour, carrying 165 million to 182 million cubic meters of water each second..

Driven by powerful winds, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current swirls clockwise around the southern continent. Hotter colors represent higher velocities; red dots are drill sites. Credit: Gisela Wincklerthat humans introduce into the atmosphere. It is unclear whether the speedup of the ACC will compromise this, but some scientists fear it will.

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