Images from “The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change”

Back to Index Ocean conveyor belt Figure 13. A simplified version of the large-scale circulation of the oceans. Water circulates globally through the oceans as though carried by a huge conveyor belt. Northward moving warm water in the North Atlantic cools and sinks to the deep ocean to resurface and be rewarmed in the Southern, Indian and North Pacific Oceans. Surface currents carry the warmer water back through the Pacific, Indian and South Atlantic and into the North Atlantic. The circuit takes almost 1000 years. Previous 13 of 77 Next