Earth’s vast ocean ecosystem is experiencing unprecedented heat. Over the past year, the sea’s surface temperature has consistently reached record highs for each calendar date, according to initial data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The main contributor to these soaring global sea surface temperatures is El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon characterized by warm surface waters spreading across the tropical Pacific Ocean. This latest El Niño event began in late spring last year. However, the warming trend extends beyond natural climate cycles, with heat accumulating in the top 2 kilometers of the ocean for decades. NOAA oceanographer Hosmay Lopez in Miami notes that this heat accumulation is intensifying at a rapid pace, pointing to human-induced climate change as the primary driver (SN: 3/10/22). Since 1971, the ocean has absorbed over 90 percent of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, totaling more than 380 zettajoules of heat. To put this into perspective, this amount of energy is equivalent to 1.5 million times the energy released during the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption, or 25 billion times the energy released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
2024-04-29 12:30:00
Source from www.sciencenews.org