Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Southern Ocean - CO₂ Sequestering

A research team from Britain and Australia's CSIRO have found 2 places in the Southern Ocean, making a total of 5, where a combination of wind, edies and currents have formed what are in effect funnels, each 1,000 km in diameter, that take the CO₂ enriched surface water down to depths of 1,000 m where it is sequestered for hundreds to thousands of years. The team say this process is very efficient at removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. The team also found the funnels were counterbalancing another effect that results from the interaction of strong winds and the surface waters of the Southern Ocean resulting in strong mixing that leads to the release of CO₂ to the atmosphere. They say that if rising temperatures has a deleterious effect on these funnels it is possible they might reduce or stop the movement of CO₂ to the deep ocean.

Sources & Further reading

1. Localised subduction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the Southern Hemisphere oceans

Links

Palaeoceanography: no sign of Southern Ocean CO₂