A team of oceanographers has discovered that the deep sea is heating up. Over the last decade, thermometers fixed at the Atlantic Ocean’s seafloor recorded an average temperature rise of around 32°F (0.02°C.)
That warming may be caused by human-driven climate change, which has increased the world’s ocean temperatures near the surface by about 1-degree Fahrenheit. That number may sound insignificant, but since the ocean is so large, researchers say it’s equivalent to every second four Hiroshima bombs’ worth of energy entered the seas for the past 25 years.
However, it’s unclear whether the deep sea is getting warmer from climate change, as very little is known about the ocean’s deepest parts. “The deep ocean, below about 2,000 meters, is not very well observed,” said oceanographer Christopher Meinen, of the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration in Miami. Read more…
