Sunday, July 05, 2009

Holy crap

So, one of my obnoxious little habits as a blogger is to point out when I've been right before other people. Nevertheless, when I started referring to the Arctic Ocean as "a slightly fresher lake" because of all the global warming and whatnot, I really thought I was making a lame joke. Uh, not so much:
In particular, the authors find that freshwater volume in the Canada and Makarov basins on the Pacific side of the Lomonosov Ridge increased by about 8,500 cubic kilometers (about 2,000 cubic miles), while the freshwater volume on the Eurasian area decreased by about 1,100 cubic kilometers (about 260 cubic miles).

The freshening of the Arctic occurred in conjunction with the recent dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice, the authors note. They find that these changes have altered Arctic Ocean circulation, with a large increase in northward transport of fresh water in the Canada Basin.


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