Seamounts Crucial for Ocean Mixing and Global Climate Models

New research reveals that undersea mountains, known as seamounts, are critical for turbulent mixing in oceans, a process vital for global ocean circulation. This phenomenon, which helps distribute heat and carbon, is largely unrepresented in current climate models, impacting their accuracy.

• Undersea mountains (seamounts) create significant turbulent mixing in deep ocean currents.
• This mixing is crucial for the global ocean's 'conveyor belt' that circulates heat and carbon.
• The study, led by the University of Cambridge, used numerical modeling to quantify this effect.
• Seamount-driven mixing accounts for about one-third of global deep-ocean mixing.
• Current climate models largely omit this process, leading to potential inaccuracies.
• Integrating these findings can improve predictions of ocean response to global warming.

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