Researchers from Nature Climate Change have announced that the oceans heat absorption has doubled over the last eighteen years. Since 1865, we’ve increased the heat uptake that has occurred. This is causing coral bleaching in warmer regions and the heat has risen 700 meters deep into the ocean. As the water heats, it also is causing the ocean waters to expand and raising the overall sea level.
While data continues to be collected for this change in climate, we will have to wait to determine what is attributing to the sudden spike in the temperatures of the ocean.
To Read the Original Article:
Ocean heating doubles
The ocean is taking heat. That’s the conclusion of a new study that finds that Earth’s oceans now absorb heat at twice the rate they did 18 years ago. Around half of ocean heat uptake since 1865 has taken place since 1997, researchers also report online January 18 in Nature Climate Change.
Warming waters are known to contribute to coral bleaching (SN Online: 10/8/15) and they take up more space than cooler waters, raising sea levels. While the top of the ocean is well studied, its depths are trickier to query. The researchers gathered 150 years of ocean temperature data in order to get a better picture of heat uptake from surface to seabed. They compiled temperature readings collected by everything from a 19th century sailing expedition of the HMS Challenger
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