Question

Both natural processes and human activity are causing some of Earth's permanent bodies of ice to melt. If enough of this ice melts, it will add warm freshwater to the northern Atlantic Ocean, where deep water currents start. What effect is this likely to have

Answer 1

Answer:

EFFECTS - : Melting glaciers and icebergs release fresh water and reduce the salinity of the surrounding sea. The seawater also becomes less dense, changing patterns of ocean currents.

Explanation -

MELTING OF ICE AND ADDING WARM FRESH WATER TO NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN -:  As part of the thermohaline circulation (also called the Global Ocean Conveyor), seawater flows through the Atlantic, the normal pattern by which seawater passes to the oceans of the world. Due to variations in water density caused by differences in temperature and salinity, the water in the Global Ocean Conveyor circulates. Colder water is denser than colder water, while salter water is denser than fresh water or less salty water.

Water heated at the Equator flows north to cold high latitudes at the surface of the ocean, where it becomes colder. When it cools, the deep ocean becomes denser and sinks. To take its place, more warm surface water flows in, cools, sinks, and the pattern continues. But this trend may be modified by melting Arctic sea ice.

The influx of freshwater from the melting ice makes seawater less salty and thus less thick at high latitudes as the Planet begins to warm and Arctic sea ice melts. In reality, data shows that over the past few decades, the North Atlantic has already become fresher.